Do we have to accept this?

Jan 31, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
From all indications it looks as if only when a deadly incident occurs in Guyana, then this incompetent government that is governing us hastily runs to the media and announces or introduces shabby mechanisms that would attempt to prevent or curb further incidents from happening.
Not a day passed without something happening that could have been avoided if this government was more vigilant in its duties. The latest was the loss of sixteen lives in the Pomeroon and Mazaruni Rivers.
For the number of years that speedboats have been in existence in Guyana, there were never any serious guidelines for the boat operators and monitoring of the boats when traversing to different destinations throughout Guyana that could have prevented accidents.
Numerous letters have been published about the speedboat operators’ action and the dangerous manner in which they operate the boats and they still continue untouched. Now, after these two incidents, we are seeing a Minister along with the seemingly incompetent MARAD introducing lifejackets and logbooks for passengers – rules for the speed boats that would make any sane person laugh, because there is no way that these rules could prevent two boats with two-200 horsepower engines (400 total hp on each boat) heading towards one another, using up majority of the horsepower, from crashing. Almost everyone travelling knows that in order for speedboats to be licenced, they have got to have enough life jackets for all the passengers they are licenced to carry.
One of the boats is a passenger boat that crashed and if MARAD was vigilant, no passenger would have been travelling without a jacket on.
At Parika Stelling, many boat captains could be seen using alcohol and illicit drugs whilst they are waiting for passengers. Speedboats ferrying passengers are supposed to stop working at 6pm but at 6:30pm speedboats could be seen occasionally with passengers in the river. To date, most routes are close to land and most of the boats are always late and would never slow down.
If there were any river patrol, they could have been monitoring them and ensured they are always cautious at dangerous areas and travelling at a minimum speed. If my information is correct, I believe there is a rule that no speedboat should be within forty feet of another vessel and many times, for some reason, large ships could be seen anchored in the Demerara River around the area that the Georgetown/Vreed-en-Hoop speedboats use and sometimes you see large no smoking signs on the big ships which made me believe that the ships might be carrying fuel or cargo that is extremely flammable. Now when I see that I always wonder which genius we have that could advise a dangerous boat like that to anchor at such a busy area and added to that, as an extra bonus, the boat captain will take you extremely close to the ships that if a little child were to throw something at the ship, they are bound to hit it without much effort.
Lots of accidents happen in the Demerara rRver but the operators continue as normal. As for licencing of captains, conversing with them you would assume there is no written exam for them. Because of incompetence from those in authority, sixteen lives have been lost and we sit back, take the excuses that are given to us and wait for the twenty people to graduate in the next four months that were in training since last year to make the rivers safe for travelling.
Whilst the government could afford to throw away millions of dollars in expired drugs, give away billions in a Hydro project, give millions in advance for drugs that cannot be collected one year after, millions for road construction that last a few weeks, they have the nerve to say that MARAD doesn’t have the resources to prevent sixteen lives being lost.
Sahadeo Bates

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