A Looming Disaster – Catastrophic Flooding to Guyana!
Submitted by Dave Rohee
Guyana – Sea wall and massive waves
While all the talk, action, and events taking place at home are centered around the oil and gas discoveries, have we forgotten a critical aspect that could affect our future?
All the riches and growth of the country are centered around how many barrels of oil will be produced and the amount of financial wealth accruing to Guyana. We seem to overlooked or avoided discussions on how fragile our coastline is to flooding!
I want to bring this potential looming disaster to the fore. Has everyone forgotten the floods that have become incrementally worse over the last several decades? Are we so smitten with the prospect of wealth for the country that we have forgotten the huge negative impact that these floods have caused on our population?
I grew up as a child visiting the seawall almost every night with my parents and never once considered the safety we enjoyed from this bastion of Dutch invention. The seawall prevented the country from being inundated with the fury of the Atlantic tides that would have meant the complete destruction of the Georgetown we know and love.
Floods from heavy rainfall
When it was constructed back in the 1880s by Dutch settlers, the seawall was a formidable barrier against the force of the Atlantic tides. The coastline of Guyana is 7 feet below sea level so this by itself presents a huge challenge.
Hundreds of articles have been written over several decades detailing the severe nature of the disastrous floods that have affected many lives and the livelihood of thousands of our citizens.
What is not seen is any attention paid to the reinforcement of the sea defense system and upgrading the drainage infrastructure to try and alleviate some of the floodings that have plagued the country for so long.
Why is this not a priority in the face of the rising level of the ocean and the effects of climate change? Have we forgotten the disaster declared by the government as recently as May 2021?
That flood was clearly a call to the administration to pay attention to what we have all known growing up in Guyana. Why is this being overlooked?
Why are we not asking for help from the countries that have faced flooding for generations and have achieved the knowledge and experience that we badly need for our very survival?
What is even more alarming is the possibility of an oil spill from any one of the multitudes of wells currently being drilled offshore!
History has shown us that oil spills are almost inevitable and occur with alarming frequency. Has this been taken into account by the various contracts we have signed with the giants of the oil industry?
What are our protections against an oil spill, and what catastrophic disaster will befall our coastline when an oil spill in combination with the overtopping of the sea defense by tidal waves? How will this affect the lives of the thousands of people living on the narrow coastal fringe of the East Coast? How many lives will be lost? How much livestock will die from pollution?
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in 1989
Does anyone remember the absolute disaster of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989? What about the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010? Deepwater Horizon oil spill by BP – still leaking oil today!
It is time for serious consideration to be paid to this problem. We have the financial wealth to have a plan developed and protection for our Guyanese citizens from this twofold looming disaster to our homeland. Tap the National Resource Fund to get moving on immediate studies contracted and proposals requested for new methods of defeating these challenges.
Time and tide wait for no man or woman! We need action NOW.
Submitted by Dave Rohee
Linkedin.com/in/dave-rohee/
Comments
The current mantra is “drill, baby drill”.
As long as there are Greater Fools willing to pay US$500,000 for an acre land in Providence, the current status quo remains the same: The PPP and His Holiness Bharrat Jagdeo will use the oil monies to beat rising sea levels, climate change and flooding.
The best lands to live in are the lands that the Venes want.
How can I find the article on Slave Women braiding RICE into their hair when coming to the New World?
This is not new to anyone except the Government it seems, or why would they allow the construction of hotels and malls right behind the sea walls. Some years ago the Dutch went to discuss the way to counter the expected flooding but the Government of the day felt that it was too costly. Well of course it will be costly but better than having floods every year and repairing constantly. however lets wait and see when 2030 comes around and Georgetown is supposed to be one of the seven cities in the world that will be underwater by then!
There is a bit of tension between the Diaspora and local Guyanese. They are accusing us of trying to take the piece of the teeny pie of oil revenues.
I will laugh when those same haters get flood up that they run like refugees to Toronto and NYC. Many of us are struggling bad here.