I listened with shame though not in disbelief to a television display by a government minister as he was giving a crude and clumsy explanation for the recent indiscriminate destruction of mangroves on the west bank of the Demerara River.
Speaking in an unwarranted belligerent tone, the minister feigned a scholarly gaffe that the mangroves have been removed to facilitate the imperatives of development.
I suspect that it was that imperative that had inspired the chopping down during his previous government of a beautiful swarth of mangroves along the eastern bank of the river for the sole cosmetic purpose of show-casing a hotel and casino!
Ugly Stretch
With the mangroves gone, the community of white gaulins was expelled, leaving for a while an ugly stretch of mud-bank that could hardly offer any protection against flooding from rising river levels that occasionally inflict damage to villages between Craig and Ruimveldt.
No one should be against use of the river banks for construction of modern edifices that have already started to reshape that portion of the capital city, Georgetown, that sits on the eastern bank of the Demerara River.
But the broadest consultations with residents and other stakeholders whose life and livelihood could be threatened is required to zone these banks for residential, commercial, industrial, wharfing and moorage purposes. Every care is needed for allocation to be done to minimize damage to our environment and eco-systems, and to prevent over-topping of the river, pollution, etc.
Our Constitution, our supreme law, embraces our natural resources, which include our rivers and our forests, as an endowment. It commands us to protect our environment and to preserve our eco-systems.
Ecological Justice
I first learnt about “ecological justice” from Cheddi Jagan who taught us to strike a balance between promotion of development and preservation of the environment.
After we formed the government in 1992 President Jagan supported a donor-funded pilot project of planting mangroves along the Ruimzeigt foreshore. Later, the project took roots in Good Hope, on the East Coast of Demerara.
So, mangroves cannot be razed or bulldozed at the whims and fancy of petty bureaucrats. They are vital to our protection from the ravages of climate change, from bloated rivers and high tides. Our communities have suffered from floods in the Pomeroon, and in the Mahaica, Mahaicony, Abary riverain areas. High tides continue to threaten coastal communities in Essequibo, West Demerara, East Demerara and West Berbice.
While we need development, we must revisit our Green State Development Strategy, by whatever other name the government may wish to call it. We must be flexible: While we welcome foreign investors, we should reserve a role for Guyanese nationals, now and in the future.
Strategic Land
Many years ago, while on a visit to Vietnam, I saw the valiant efforts by Vietnamese to reclaim their sea coast by using bamboos and seines. But in the interest of development, foreign investors have since gobbled up strategic sea-side lands, almost to the exclusion of Vietnamese nationals.
Recently, following the election of a new President and Prime Minister, laws were approved to redefine the development trajectory to delimit access by foreigners to commercial waterfront lands, and high-rise properties.
In Guyana development must not come at any price such as the murder of our mangroves!
(The author, a journalist and attorney, is the former Prime Minister of Guyana).
January 30, 2021
