Latest update June 14th, 2026 12:09 AM
Amalia Falls highlights a failing
Dear Editor,
If anyone offers a thought in Guyana, he/she is immediately branded pro or anti government.
We in Guyana, the land of many waters, have little or no hydropower. This is a failure of our Government, (whichever the reader may choose to blame).
In the fifties, I believe, a small group recommended to Government that the Kamaira Falls in the Cuyuni River be utilized for a hydropower scheme generating 60 megawatts.
This, at that time, would have cost US$10 million. It had much going for it, including the fact that ocean going vessels of up to 18 feet draft could get to within seven to 10 miles of the hydro site.
Sand and stone were readily available, etc, etc. But it was adjudged, at that time that U.S$10 million was too expensive. Burnham’s Hydro scheme, the Upper Mazaruni Development Project, failed to mature.
Why? I don’t know. Some say the scheme was adjudged by the international agencies to be too large for Guyana, so no aid could be arranged. It ceased, yet its road has been very useful for the booming gold mining industry.
Currently “Amalia” is the shout. One dares not say anything critical about the project, else one is branded anti-government, anti-hydro all that nonsense.
Hydro is very badly needed in Guyana.
But Government needs to accept criticism and carefully monitor expense or else the cost per unit will be far higher than that being paid now. Yet we read in the media of political promises being made to the people of Mahdia (three years electricity) of Linden (cheap electricity) etc…etc… Are our leaders being deliberately misinformed? Or are our professional engineers totally inexperienced in building anything away from the coastline? (Much less a Hydro station)
Some have opined “another three years for the completion of the road”, with an additional three to four years to build the hydro station. (That is seven years believe it or not). Of course somewhere in those seven years one assumes the pylon towers will be built and the cables run, and not leave it to be done after completion.
Also there, is talk of no fissure study been done in the area. This would determine, if there are natural cracks in the bedrock through which any “back up” water may leak—a “must” for any hydro project.
Neglected completely is the private sector involvement in Hydro (the engine of growth!). There is a site that can generate two megawatts of power.
This is in the near hinterland. If government would consider releasing a 10-mile by 10-mile area and the rights to the water in the creek on which the hydro will be built, then, “maybe”, the engine of growth may start up.
Talking to some wealthy Guyanese they say, “it is a non starter, that Government, will only want to do it themselves or give it to their friends”. Is this true? Is there a policy? We need Hydro, we need discussion, we need opportunity. Maybe one day-maybe!
Tackuba
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