Liquid indifference

May 26, 2013 APNU Column, Features / Columnists

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Innocent persons continue to perish in our country’s rivers because of the indifference of the People’s Progressive Party Civic administration’s policy-makers and politicians.
Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee, in the wake of the deaths of two women who drowned when a river boat capsized in the Corentyne River in February 2007, remarked, nonchalantly, that citizens could not continue to do the ‘wrong thing’ and expect the state’s protection. Minister of Public Works Robeson Benn responded more intelligently earlier this year, in light of the recent fatal boat accidents, by calling on his departmental heads at the Ministry of Public Works to make safety their priority.  Benn’s pleas, however, are no substitute for rigorous enforcement.
Like a cancer without a cure, the human safety situation is deteriorating. The dangerous lawlessness on this country’s rivers and coastal waters is taking an unbearable toll on human life. Yet, the two ministries with responsibility for regulating riverine traffic and human safety, respectively e the Ministry of Public Works and the Ministry of Home Affairs – seem either indifferent or impotent as the chaos continues and deaths increase.
Riverine traffic is increasing in volume, extent, composition and complexity. Vessels involved in cross-border trade – including contraband trade – to Venezuela and Suriname, barges carrying bauxite, stone, sand or timber, mining dredges and tugs carrying fuel compete with residents of riverine villagers.
Residents, however, have no option but to use the rivers with whatever crafts are at their disposal. They are obliged to rely almost exclusively on boats to go about their daily business, including evacuating sick persons and travelling to their farms, mines, schools and towns. Government officials, tourists and holidaymakers must travel by river to reach their destinations. Schoolchildren in some hinterland communities only travel to daily classes by canoe.
There has been a ‘culture clash’ between traditional lifeways and contemporary commercial reality. The everyday economies of riverine communities on the one hand often jostle uncomfortably with the commercial, governmental, industrial, mining and leisure sectors, on the other hand. This clash has resulted far too frequently in fatal collisions. The change in river use has taken place slowly over a period of decades but the administration has not seen the need to provide additional resources to regulate riverine traffic.
The two ministries can prevent further needless loss of life if they become less indifferent to the plight of the river users and if they resolve to discharge their responsibility to protect our citizens more effectively. The Ministry of Home Affairs, for example, has no option but to rebuild the Guyana Police Force’s neglected Marine Police Unit. It now has only a few boats and ‘balahoos.’ It is staffed by an inspector who is supported by fewer than 10 constables and subordinate officers.
There is no way that the present Marine Police Unit can discharge its duty to patrol the busiest and deadliest crossings and to enforce the law. Riverine traffic has increased in every river flowing northwards to the coast – from the Corentyne to the Barima–but the Marine Police Unit has been reduced over the past 20 years.
The Marine Police presence must be enhanced; its members should be trained to conduct search-and-rescue operations, assist boats which are adrift, lost or broken down and render life-saving medical aid to passengers in need. It must be empowered to suppress lawlessness and take enforcement action against delinquent river boat operators. Regulations for these measures exist but are simply not enforced owing to official indifference, lack of interest and the failure to provide sufficient resources.
The Ministry of Public Works must also wake up. It must provide adequate resources to its Maritime Administration Department to enable it to do its work. The Ministry must set standards of competence for bowmen and captains; conduct examinations before river boat crews are certified to carry passengers; prescribe the structure and design of river boats and determine the weight of cargo and the number of passengers that can be carried safely – all before the issue of the river-worthiness certificates.
The MARAD must ensure passengers’ safety by enforcing the use of individual lifejackets; the installation of port and starboard lights, horns and first-aid equipment and fixing the hours of operation. River boats must be inspected, their engines and their equipment must be tested and captains and bowmen must be certified to operate vessels.  Passenger vessels must have third-party insurance coverage, just like road vehicles.
The national fleet of river boats is growing larger. The Parika-Supenaam route alone has over 80; the Parika-Bartica route has about 60. Other major rivers – Corentyne, Berbice, Abary, Mahaicony, Mahaica, Demerara, Essequibo, Cuyuni, Mazaruni, Pomeroon, Waini, Moruca, Barima – have hundreds more. To these must be added the vessels of other river users – fisherfolk, traders, miners and villagers.
Guyana is not called “the land of many waters” for nothing. The old ways of river use and governmental enforcement are dangerously obsolete. There must be a new approach to maritime and riverine traffic. The two ministers – Benn and Rohee – must learn the lesson of the loss of life over the past decade. Their party, the PPPC, must start to place a high value on human life. Asked some time ago why the administration has not moved to exercise regulatory oversight over the dangerous crossings, one minister confessed, lamely, that “some of the operators do not want this.”
This attitude helps to explain why there is so much chaos and so many deaths on our rivers!

 

 

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