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Is the construction of a D’Urban Park Development Project ‘wishful thinking’?
The declared 16.20 acres of ‘pristine jungle’ which sits loudly in the centre of Georgetown, serves as an overgrown pasture of tall stretching trees for animals, a natural habitat for wild animals including caimans and snakes, a haven for junkies, breeding grounds for mosquitoes and a dumpsite.
A side view from the St. Sidwell’s Primary School of the “failed project” which has become nothing more than a grazing pasture for stray cows and donkeys.
The Administration’s vision to have a ‘jungle’ in the heart of the city, replaced its initial plan to create a D’Urban Park Developmental Project with economic, recreational and tourism facilities.
In fact, millions of dollars were already invested in the project before its abrupt and brutal death. In August 2006, Cabinet gave its no-objection to the award of $45M from the Guyana Lottery Fund to finance the initial phase of this project, which included land filling and minor drains.
This developmental project would have revived the D’Urban Park to its former glory, which is the desire of residents.
According to Vernon Babb, a resident of Hadfield Street for 60 years, he and other residents were excited when they heard of the plans to clear the overgrown bushes and finally enhance the area after years of neglect.
Babb recounted that he noticed contractors sand filling behind the 1763 Monument and then one day the project ceased. He noted that no one consulted with him or residents either before the project commenced or after its death.
The elderly man reminisced of the good old days when the ‘jungle’ was a recreational facility and families used to gather on the weekends for cricket, football, and horse racing. In the afternoons, youths were occupied in sporting activities instead of liming aimlessly on the street corner.
“The National Parks Commission at one time used to manage the area during the 1980s. The boys from the prison used to come and weed from time to time, but today it’s a jungle, no one comes and clear the bushes and only wild trees growing there,” Babb stated.
Babb proudly revealed that the D’Urban Park was famous for its race course.
A cow taking shelter from the hot sun under the dense overgrown forest which has now become a local zoo for animals.
During the good days in Lodge, the Sankars, Foreshaws, and the Luckhoos had horses. Horse racing was income generating for residents since persons come from near and far for the activity.
He emphasized that in the early 1990s, the upkeep of the area went to the wayside. Things became bleak, the drainage system clogged and the land got low and swampy and that was the end of it. There were no more cricket or football on Sundays and no horse racing on Saturdays.
From the Hadfield Street view, the land which was once to have been developed into a local park, now appears to be a part of the forestry sector as the bushes keep growing and taking over the area.
In 2008, Dr. Roger Luncheon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, stated that, “The view is to retain D’Urban Park as a ‘green area,’ and no matter what we do, to minimally maintain that zone… we would be cutting the grass and whatever is introduced in the area.”
He also stated that Guyanese should not expect to see any ‘high rise building or anything else’ in that area, as it has been declared a ‘green zone’.
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