Urgency
Editorial
When we think of Guyana, we think of the coastal strip. Maybe we shouldn't, given the country's vast hinterland, but that is how it is. Of course, most inhabitants live on the strip, so to speak, and have done so for at least the last two hundred years, and it is the way of life which has evolved there that encapsulates much of what we regard as being quintessentially Guyanese. If looked at objectively, life on the strip represents a precarious existence (as everyone knows, the land lies below high-tide level in many parts), which has always depended for its viability on a complicated system of drainage and sea defence works. And now, it seems, that whole way of life - not to mention our economy - could be under threat because over the last seven years reconstruction of our sea defences has proceeded at about half the pace required to deal with the encroaching ocean. And make no mistake about it, the sea level is rising inexorably, and will continue to do so due to global warming. While there are many things which require urgent attention in this nation, there is nothing, but nothing, which requires attention as urgently as this. The bad news came in a report prepared by Rijkswaterstaat, a Dutch consultancy group commissioned by Minister of Works Anthony Xavier to look into sea defences. Some of their findings, which were submitted to the Minister some weeks ago, were made public in last Sunday's edition of this newspaper. The study was critical of the Government's whole approach to the problem of the sea, whereby resources were expended on emergency sea defence works rather than on managing a "vital, sound programme of reconstruction." Emergency works, it went on, were treated as "a routine," and there was no medium to long-term plan setting forth priorities and damage preventative measures. Only eight kilometres of sea defence had been rehabilitated since 1992, said the study, while one hundred kilometres was deteriorating, and new coastal zones were becoming exposed owing to the disappearance of mangrove cover. Among other things, what was needed as a priority, the report said, was a coastal zone management programme, which could effect the necessary measurements in a context where the sea level was rising, the sea bottom was eroding the waves were increasing, and the mangroves were receding. Will disaster strike in the coming years or only after decades, the consultants asked. Not knowing, they wrote, was the equivalent of "the gamble of a blindfolded man." And if that were not enough devastating news to be contained within the covers of a single report, the study went on to highlight tendering deficiencies, management deficiencies, a lack of adherence to administrative procedures and, most of all, the unconscionable delays. It was these which had caused the World Bank to leave the sea defence sector, and which was putting the Lusignan project at risk, since the Inter-American Development Bank too was threatening to pull out. "Too little too late," was the comment of the Rijkswaterstaat consultants on the Lusignan fiasco. At his press conference last Friday Dr Roger Luncheon indicated that the Government had taken certain measures in response to the report. Are these sufficient given the magnitude of the problem? Who knows. Does the Government have enough expertise at its disposal currently to do what is necessary? Probably not. Can it, or will it tap additional expertise in a hurry? That is not clear. Can the administration act with the expedition that this emergency requires? It never has before, but presumably there is always a first time. One thing is sure, however, and that is if the collective leadership in Freedom House does not get a true grip on the word 'urgent' and act accordingly, the world inhabited by its party cadres, plus that of the combined opposition, plus that all the rest of us, could conceivably be devoured by the hungry Atlantic at some point in the future. It would be a solution of sorts to Guyana's political ills, but not the kind that any of us is looking for.
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