Guyana sits on what was once known as the “wild coast” of South America. The area was a dangerous swamp that struck terror in the hearts of European adventurers seeking the fabled city of El Dorado. Even Sir Walter Raleigh is rumoured to have come here in search of gold. The name “Guiana” is said to come from an Amerindian word meaning “land of many waters”. Like many myths, it is charming but unsupported by evidence. Water is, however, a dominant motif of Guyana and certainly of Georgetown, the capital city. Water is also likely to end Georgetown’s existence before the 21st century comes to a close.
You cannot get away from water in Georgetown. There is a drain outside every house. It feeds into a trench that at some point flows into a canal. Old photos show the beauty of the waterways that comprised the original drainage system for the city. Georgetown is still crisscrossed by the canals, drains, and gutters that take storm-water from the roads and gardens and sends it to the sea. When the tide is in, the kokers (sluices) are closed. When the tide is out, the kokers are opened, and the water rushes out.
That is the theory. In reality, this superbly designed drainage system is blocked by selfish residents and greedy irresponsible businesses who dump garbage indiscriminately. Very quickly the bottles, tins, Styrofoam boxes, plastic bags, and other debris end up in the canals and drains. Blocked waterways cannot do their job. In 2005 Georgetown suffered one of the worst floods ever, resulting in millions of dollars of damage. There have been other less destructive but still costly floods. In 2014, as the floodwaters entered my house, I disconsolately watched the fish swimming in my study. The charm of their appearance was more than outweighed by the loss of books.
The lesson has not been learned. The ever-increasing mounds of plastic bottles dumped around the city continue to surge out to join the hundreds of millions of tons of plastic waste that are killing the oceans. The private sector, consumers, schools, churches, the Mayor and City Council mutter about garbage from time to time but continue to buy and dump the products that make up that same garbage—a sort of national cognitive dissonance.
In February 2017 the government introduced an environmental levy of $10 (US$5cents) on “every non-returnable unit of metal, plastic or glass container of any alcoholic or non-alcoholic beverage or water, whether imported, locally manufactured or produced in Guyana.” One year later, this levy had produced G$1.2Bn (US$6M). That means 120,000,000 non-returnable bottles or approximately 160 per person in Guyana’s small population of 750,000. Sadly, the levy appears to be more of a revenue-raising exercise for the government rather than a mechanism to restore and protect the environment. The money is not spent on ending environmentally damaging waste and there is still no environmental plan for Georgetown.
The drain outside my house is concrete and connects at right angles with the larger drain in the alleyway.
These drains are full of treasures—tadpoles, frogs, fishes, snails, and strange mossy plants. One of the great joys of the afternoon is to watch the little water snakes chasing and eating fish. We pick them up and admire them, before putting them back to finish their dinner. They coil around the wrist like blue and yellow braided bracelets. I have no idea what species these snakes are or even if my memory of the colours is accurate. The fish are still here, but I have not seen the snakes for several months now. One of the hardest things to do is to stop Georgetown folk from killing snakes.
The fish in my drain are small—a few centimetres—although there is the occasional excitement of a big tilapia about 15 centimetres in length.
You see the odd person fishing in the canals and sometimes catching enough for a meal. Small boys sometimes swim in the cleaner parts of the trenches. On rare occasions, an eel might appear briefly. I once grabbed one and found out for myself why “as slippery as an eel” is so apt. The abundance of freshwater, even when choked with filth, somehow still supports a range of wild birds—snail kites, kingfishers, limpkins, and various herons that eat the snails and fish as well as the other 200 or so bird species that have to drink it.
The waterways are also places of extraordinary beauty and a good place to see the glorious lotus lily. The flower is a rich pink, and the scent is heady and overpowering if you can get close enough without tumbling in. Trench edges are notoriously treacherous.
Although the lotus does impede drainage, it can help to create a healthy environment by removing pollution such as heavy metals. The lotus also has cultural and religious significance. It is sacred to Hindus and Buddhists. Eating on lotus leaves is an old custom that was brought to Guyana by indentured Indians. At religious festivals vegetarian curry is served on these leaves and eaten by hand. There is a knack to it that stops everything from sliding into your lap. Times change and now more and more people are using plastic plates and Styrofoam boxes instead of the biodegradable leaves. It is supposed to be more ‘developed.’ Inevitably the plastic and Styrofoam end up in the drains and trenches and block the waterways and outfalls. More than twenty years I wrote the law which says that, “Any person who throws down, abandons, drops or otherwise deposits or leaves anything in any manner whatsoever in circumstances as to cause, or contribute to, or tend to lead to litter shall be guilty of an offence.” All that is needed is a little political commitment and enforcement by the police and Environmental Protection Agency.
To the north, the beauty of Georgetown stops abruptly at a concrete wall. Behind it is the mighty Atlantic Ocean. If you want to see the sea, you do not walk down to a beach; you climb up the sea-wall and look out. Georgetown lies about 6 feet below sea-level. The second surprise is the colour of the water—not the sparkling blue as in the Caribbean – but a rich brown thanks to the silt and soil from three great rivers, Brazil’s Amazon, Venezuela’s Orinoco and Guyana’s largest river, the Essequibo.
The foreshore changes over time. Erosion takes away the beach. Accretion dumps coastal sediment and re-creates land. I remember as a child picking up shells on a sandy beach beyond the sea-wall and watching the crabs scuttling into their holes. There were little pools that smelled of the sea and small rubbery flowers. The beach used to have low bushes that provided natural protection against the force of the waves.
All of these have gone. The sea-defences at this point are just a hideous concrete structure devoid of wildlife. Now and then the four-eyed fish come in with the waves and peep about at the edge of the concrete. These extraordinary creatures have eyes that are divided so they can see above the water and in the water at the same time.
The seawall has always been a place for Georgetown residents to come, sit and “take the breeze”. The air is salty and smells of the sea. Children run around. Couples court. The city feels small and self-important when you contemplate the vast stretch of ocean. Somewhere out there is Africa. The ships bringing enslaved Africans would come in near here. It is a terrible thought that so much of this city’s wealth was first created by men and women in chains. Enslaved Africans were subjected to the most brutal, life-denying conditions—flogging, mutilation and hanging for trivial offences—and yet they continued to resist. Quamina Street in the heart of the city is named after one of the leaders of the Demerara Rebellion of 1823. And by the sea-wall is a monument to this same rebellion. A dignified figure stands tall on the plinth and gazes into the distance.
Is he seeing his African homeland? I hope so. Below is an enslaved African woman emerging from the stone. History, culture, and water run together all over Georgetown.
Increasingly nature is seen as a bit of an embarrassment, a sort of old-fashioned thing. Bright lights nearby have destroyed the black and silver splendour of the night. The womb-like shushing of the Atlantic waves can no longer be heard. On Sunday nights big speakers pump out music that sounds like a dead monotonous beat accompanied by demented screaming. It is an assault on the senses and a destruction of Georgetown’s seawall tradition.
It is possible to walk westwards along the seawall passing the lovely old wrought iron bandstand, and the relatively new Marriot Hotel, an architectural monstrosity built with public money and imported Chinese labour. The city’s western border is of course water. Having successfully, for now at least, defied the Atlantic Ocean, Georgetown gives the illusion of slipping into the Demerara River with the golden pink sunset. The land ends abruptly. A groyne takes some of the force of the waves coming in from the Atlantic. It is a dangerous spot and people have drowned here.
The Demerara is a much smaller river than the Essequibo, only about a mile wide. This is the country’s main port, and ships come in here, laden with imported consumer goods, including plastic bottles of water from Trinidad, which possibly end up back in Trinidad via ocean currents.
The riverside waterfront is taken up with docks and wharves for the shipping industry until the organic chaos that is the Stabroek Market—fish, fresh fruit and vegetables, meat, spices, medicine even gold—there is something for everybody in Stabroek Market. But it is dirty. The river side of the market is full of the inevitable plastic bottles and garbage. There is absolutely no respect for the river as an ecosystem. The scarlet ibis have wisely fled further south. The other large market—Bourda—is further east near the canals along Church street and North road. It is a favourite spot for this heron to fish.
A little further along is perhaps the most beautiful waterway of all—the bit that meanders through the zoo and Botanic Gardens. Manatees have lived in this system of ponds for as long as I can remember. There are also small spectacled caiman. It is incredible to think that this kind of wildlife is relatively free to roam in a city. The rest of the manatees are in the National Park, not far from the seawall.
Georgetown cannot escape the sea. 120 miles out, Esso Exploration and Petroleum Guyana Ltd, a Bahamas subsidiary of ExxonMobil has announced a massive oil discovery of over 3 billion barrels of oil. Along with two other companies Hess Exploration Guyana Ltd, a Cayman Islands company, and CNOOC Nexen Guyana Production Ltd, registered in Barbados, Esso has a licence to extract oil. The oil deal is hugely controversial not least because of the favourable terms to the oil companies and the doubts about what Guyana will get.
There is also concern about oil pollution and for the environment in general as well as a legal challenge and international concern Guyana’s oil will contribute to climate change and therefore to rising sea levels. For a country whose capital city is below sea-level this seems a self-defeating course of action, especially as Georgetown is particularly vulnerable. At one time Guyana had the highest suicide rate in the world. Now, it almost seems as if the capital city is getting ready to commit slow suicide by drowning. But it doesn’t have to end like that. Other cities are fighting back. New York and San Francisco are suing the oil companies for harm from climate change. Arnold Schwarzenegger even wants to go after them for murder.
Georgetown’s Mayor and City Council and the central government appear to have little or no understanding of climate change (and other threats to humanity) despite the second warning to humanity from thousands of scientists. Georgetown is running out of time and desperately needs new visionary leadership and citizens who love their capital city. Perhaps the time has come for young people to take over, to enforce their constitutional right to inter-generational equity, to demand a fossil fuel free economy, to insist on an immediate and total ban on plastic and Styrofoam, and to work together to restore the city’s waterways and infrastructure, not just to hold back the sea but to create a healthy environment with a zero-carbon footprint.
Like London, Georgetown could even become a national park city. As Martin Carter, Guyana’s best loved poet wrote, “I do not sleep to dream, but dream to change the world.”
Melinda Janki
Georgetown
About the Writer:
Melinda Janki
Melinda Janki is a lawyer. She was instrumental in getting Guyana's Constitution changed to state that the nation's well-being depends on clean air, pure water, and rich biodiversity.
My, what a wonderful piece, well deserving of our attention.
Additionally, there was an article describing our water way, as deplorable and in a deadening condition.
This EPA chief is ignoring the seriousness of our main river, “Demerara river” and other canals, and drains that’s poisoning the main source of our livelihood.
There is no need to look far to see trash…
Just look at drains throughout Georgetown…with sewer, hospital waste, garbage, dead animals and a lot of foreign debris, willfully dumped into the the Demerara river and you can tell these people are clueless.
I am calling upon those elected to first clean up the mess right under your nose before you have this distraction some hundreds of miles away.
Concern river resident.
Gregory playter.
Hi Melinda. Great article giving a very good sense of the issues Guyana faces. I’m with a news crew planning to come out to Georgetown from London at the end of the month. Would very much like to be in contact with you. Would you mind emailing me your contact details – mine: [email protected].
Best, and thanks, Jonah Hull
A Minister recently echoed in Toronto and Texas that Guyana will produce 1,000,000+ barrels of oil by the year 2025. This is a 10X increase of oil production which is anticipated to happen by the second half of this year.
I’m amazed as to how speedy the oil companies are allowed to rapidly instate increased oil production tenfold within 5 years, but everyone knows in Guyana how slow, bureaucratic and laissez-faire the process if for conducting business with certain departments of bureaucracy.
My estimates, based on current oil discoveries, calculate that by 15 years, most of the oil in Guyana will be non-recoverable and automatically depleted. We will be right where we once were; without oil, but with severe consequences for other exports, the environment and the economy.
It was also discovered that one of the shell companies used by Exxon didn’t have any assets. This is a major Red Flag as to the intentions of these oil companies. If an oil spill happens, Guyanese will have to pay the costs and impact on their environment and economy.
Thanks for a most interesting article. We grew up with the drainer, canals, forefoot and trench, and of course the waterside. They teemed with life, added to the beauty of the surroundings and also became the dustbins for our garbage. As you have pointed out, there is no clear environment policy; perhaps we can get it in the manifestos of the political parties for the next election.
My wife and I are considering moving out to Georgetown and you detailed narrative gives us a good insight of what we’ll encounter. Thank you.
Thank you Dr Westmaas for a fantastic post. The sea that has no business in the forest is in fact already breaching the sea wall and flowing over the land.
https://guyanatimesgy.com/sea-defence-breach-causes-massive-flooding-in-wakenaam/
Rising sea levels are a direct result of global warming. The Paris Agreement requires countries to drastically cut their emissions from fossil fuels in order to keep the temperature rise well below 2 degrees. Trying to move into oil production puts Guyana firmly on the wrong side of history.
Nigel – wonderful comment and thank you for sharing the beautiful quotations from Martin Carter. He described the awe-ful and raw beauty of Guyana more powerfully than any other writer I have ever read. I hope you are still dreaming to change the world!
Excellent article that nicely links the environmental, historical and just plain common sense which some denizens of Georgetown appear to have lost. The photos are also brilliantly chosen and complement the storyline. Janki’s piece is even more important given that very little is discussed nowadays about the Guyana environment as ExxonMobil’s conglomerate shadow looms over along with the dangers they pose. While many are expectant of the flow of capital via oil, Guyana is a society, (and certainly Georgetown which sits on the coast) is palpably vulnerable both to the preparedness for the inflow of funds and the potential ecological and environmental disasters that can come with oil spills.
Long before the current crisis of the environment and the political economy of Guyana, Walter Rodney’s incredible Chapter 1 (Internal and External Constraints on the Development of the Working People) in History of the Guyanese Working People already identified the connection between the environment and local political and social conditions in Guyana.
Rodney even calculated that the enslaved population of Guyana moved “100 million tons of heavy waterlogged clay with shovel in hand while enduring conditions of perpetual mud and water” to humanize the environment – that which we are slowly destroying today and inviting others to help come to destroy. Rodney talks throughout this chapter about flood and the perpetual battle against the sea and the struggle to cultivate and make life bearable for the working people.
Another famous Guyanese cited in Melinda’s piece is Martin Carter. It is perhaps little known but although Carter is recognized as a ‘political’ poet the environment saturates his poetry. Indeed some of his poems are completely dedicated to the environment. One such is ENDLESS MOMENT WORLD.
I attach here just an extremely tiny sample of the wonderful (separate) nugget lines from throughout the range of his poems (each one worthy of a story in itself):
Province of mud!
Province of flood !
Plantation – feudal coast
Hearing the beetles at six o’clock
Dark face of the river
Sunset arrested on the edge of the world
Green green forest
the map of stars above the mass of water
the mass of water underneath the stars
I walked behind a memory of flowers
the sea that has no business in the forest
I stretch my hand to a night of weary branches
Sand is out there and little crabs that hide
This wall is mud and bitter bitter rain
and take the silver fishes from the deep
the kind eagle soars and wheels in flight
O strike kind eagle, strike !
these waters ripple shaking up the sky
the father of wind stands howling on the roof
the green tree bends above the long forgotten
is the torture of sunset in purple bandages
Cold rain is mist! Is air, is all my breath!
Rain falls upward
Amid a hatred of trees
The leaves of the canna lily near the pavement
Keep at it Melinda and do check in on the other Carter whenever you get the chance.
Just outside of Toronto, in a city called Hamilton, it is a delight to walk along the Waterfront Trial and see birds fishing on the water.
Their waterfront is clear of garbage because they tackle the problem during the entire lifecycle. Many stores charge a fee if you want to use a plastic bag for groceries, a total ban on plastic bags has not worked well. They also have a plastic recycling program as part of their weekly garbage pickup. But they also tackle the problem with a ‘Clean Up’ program to clear plastics from the shoreline.
On many occasions, I have observed large groups of volunteers picking up garbage along Hamilton’s Waterfront Trail. These ‘Clean Up’ groups are sponsored by large corporations that do business in the city. I suspect getting people to use their Sunday mornings to pickup garbage will also make them much more aware of their use of plastics and Styrofoam. How can you get ‘Clean Up’ groups in Georgetown to organize like those in the Toronto area?
Here are a few links related to the Hamilton volunteer program:
http://earthdayhamilton.ca/events/waste-watchers/community-cleanups/
https://www.hamilton.ca/parks-recreation/community-environmental-initiatives/team-clean
https://ocean.org/
Andrew, thank you. You must visit!
Joy Austin….thank you!
Joy, thank you so much for taking the time to read the article. I assume you are part of the Guyana diaspora; it’s good to know that you still care about Guyana. I have to disagree respectfully as I think that a ‘green economy’ based on fossil fuel production is a contradiction in terms especially given climate change. By the way did you know that Esso’s environmental impact assessment says Esso will dump 4,000 barrels of sewage a day into Guyana’s rich marine environment – about 1,411,368,000 gallons of sewage over the life of the Liza Phase 1.
People who talk about the oil revenue are using projections based on the global oil price. but it is the Petroleum Contract not the oil price which determines what Guyana gets. It is possible for Guyana to end up with nothing or even a loss. The current debt from Guyana to the oil companies stands at about US$1bn. Thank you again for your thoughtful comments.
Excellent article rich in references to our natural habitat. The trouble is that those of us who benefited from earlier years spent in a city that was stable and well-governed (or so it seemed in retrospect) are now too old and far away to contribute to the restoration and rebuilding of a wonderful place. The government will receive donations but doesn’t act to facilitate our contribution and input to the standards that are needed. I’m not against the oil industry because it’s the bedrock of industry worldwide but I support the Government’s use of the proceeds to build a green economy across all sectors and develop a sovereign wealth fund for the good of the populace. (Fingers crossed.)
Thanks for this powerful essay on how we take water for granted and how the simple, careless act of not cleaning up after ourselves as an individual or a country has dire consequences. As usual, your writing is exquisite!
BTW, I just saw this article on a Facebook page about wooden structures in Guyana. So it is garnering a large audience!
I absolutely loved reading your article. As Desmond says, it evokes the beauty of your natural surroundings and reminds us of the treasures we take for granted but are worth more of our attention and effort.
Also I have never been to Georgetown and so it was great reading about the city, its drainage and sea defences, especially from an engineering point of view.
Thank you RS, Desmond and Charlene for your really kind comments. We have to hope that more people wake up to the threats posed, not just to Guyana, but to the entire planet, from fossil fuel extraction and its byproduct plastic.
Melinda thanks for this. This is the kind of material that UG students I teach need as what I call living text, timely and relevant to their lives. Beautiful! It also gives them ideas about what writing can be — making use of all the 21st century technology we have. I’ve posted it both to my facebook page as well as the page, The Writing Centre University of Guyana. Hopefully, even though the term is out, some ardent ones will find it inspiring and they will see that their writing is about moving people in many different ways and changing their world for the better.
Thank you, Melinda for this wonderfully evocative description of the watery beauty of Georgetown.
“Guyana’s oil will contribute to climate change and therefore to rising sea levels.”
This is a terrifying prospect. The burning of fossil fuels is a major factor contributing to global warming and rising sea levels. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says we can expect the oceans to rise between 11 and 38 inches (28 to 98 centimeters) by 2100, enough to swamp many of the cities along the U.S. East Coast – and definitely enough to drown Georgetown. The people of Guyana have the chance to say no to the oil and thereby help to save our planet – and your beautiful city.
I hope they will see sense and act now.
Thanks Charles. I agree people need to come together especially the youth who deserve (and should want) skies full of birds, oceans rich in marine life, an earth teeming with creatures……. not a dead plastic world or an oil slick.
Thanks Jo. I wonder if the political will is missing partly because there is so little resistance from the Guyanese public to the environmental destruction happening right in front of us?
Yes, people who see the connection between what they do and the harm they inflict on the earth are more likely to change. If everybody used re-usable bags it would help. Sarina, I totally agree it’s better to do something, however small, than nothing.
A beautiful, whimsical article and a reminder that real change need not take the world, just commitment on the part of individuals and government. Keep up the good work, Melinda.
Great article! Interesting, wide ranging and dealing with pressing environmental issues that must be addressed NOW (although I am under no illusion as to the political will to do so).
Thanks for this thought-provoking article, Melinda. As Guyanese, we can each do a small part in reducing our plastic waste by doing simple things like bringing a reusable bag to supermarkets, or asking for our groceries to be packed in a cardboard box. Hoping also that many Guyanese restaurants will follow the example of those in Ireland and the UK, and use paper straws instead of plastic.
Clearly a disaster waiting to happen. What is needed is a coming together of people with energy to restore the drainage system and to begin the fight against plastic. Is there any evidence of a desire to do this? I fear too little and inevitably too late.