Latest update June 15th, 2026 1:01 AM
AS GUYANA PREPARES
As Guyana prepares to showcase itself in front of the world as it hosts the tenth Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) there are disturbing developments which can undermine all the hard work that has been put in to ensure that Guyana is ready to host this important event.
The runway lights at the Timehri International Airport have for the third time in recent weeks conked out and this is now posing a huge question mark as to whether all the participants coming from overseas for the festival will make it on time, if at all.
We would have expected that after the first incident occurred following a storm that in keeping with established practices at international airports, that regardless of what the authorities may have felt was responsible, that an investigation would have been launched to determine what went wrong, why it went wrong, if anyone should be held responsible and what steps should be taken to prevent a recurrence.
Guyana, which expects a large number of visitors to this important event, now finds itself in a situation where night flights have had to be suspended at a high cost, disrupting the schedules of the airlines that operate out of our international airport.
It is going to cost the affected airlines an extremely filthy sum to deal with the contingencies that will arise because of the problems with flight being unable to land at night at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.
It will also most likely affect travel to Guyana. This is something that Guyana can ill afford at this time since a bonanza of visitors was predicted for Carifesta X.
The second problem that will cast a negative shadow on our hosting of Carifesta is the problems that have developed at the West Demerara Hospital.
We cannot recall ever a situation in Guyana where a hospital has had to refer patients to other hospitals because of the absence of adequate supplies of water.
We recall the embarrassment that the former PNC Government suffered when in the eighties the operating theatre was deemed unfit for surgeries. This has now been surpassed by what has taken place because of the unavailability of water.
This development will only cause greater pressure to be placed on the Georgetown Public Hospital at a time when the hospital itself has just suffered a catastrophic fire.
This is not the ideal situation that we would wish when so many persons will be attending events related to the hosting of the festival.
We believe that the government needs to seriously consider what course it will adopt given the situation at our airport and the problems at the West Demerara Hospital. These are serious developments which require serious responses.
We urge the government to immediately appoint independent investigation teams since in the final analysis it is the image and the economy of the country that is affected by these crises.
While the situation at the airport may have developed because of an act of nature, the question that needs answering is why there were not adequate backup systems.
In its inconceivable that in this age that an airport should have to suspend night flights because of problems with lighting.
It is equally disgraceful for the services of a major hospital to be affected because of the non-availability of water.
How can the government justify the massive bill that it is footing to host CARIFESTA when it cannot get right its lighting system on the airstrip of Guyana’s only international airport or the water supply to an important hospital?
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