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That Del Conte Road

May 28, 2013 Editorial

 

Roads and railways are perhaps the easiest means of communicating and commuting between places. They help to open up parts of the country that were previously inaccessible. Roads spurred developments in so many parts of the country that the extent of development cannot be measured.
When the government constructed the Corentyne Highway it not only enabled the easy movement of goods from the Corentyne Coast to the other parts of the country. It also helped those farmers to easily dispose of their surpluses. More than thirty per cent of the greens and vegetables consumed in the city, come from the Corentyne. And they do so in so fast a time that spoilage is almost non-existent.
Similarly, the impact of the Soesdyke-Linden Highway is immeasurable.  Prior to the construction of that highway in 1968, it took almost fifteen hours to travel between the capital and the mining community. River was the main means.  Again, the volume of goods transported to the bauxite community at that time was infinitesimal compared to what operates today.
That road has seen the expansion of the bauxite community. It has also been integral to the development of the gold and diamond industry. Plans to bring the road from Brazil to coastal Guyana also include that highway.
These observations caused the nation to recognize the importance of the comments by President Donald Ramotar that his government will revisit the Del Conte road linking Parika and the hinterland community of Bartica.
The Del Conte road was once a talking point for the political opposition. It was a grand undertaking by the late President Cheddi Jagan in the 1960s. At the time he was Premier because Guyana was not yet an independent country. He contracted a Venezuelan construction company; hence the name, but the road went nowhere. The project became known as the Del Conte fiasco.
A road link from Parika to the one-time gateway to the interior will once more see Bartica actually regaining that status. But the road will do much more. In that part of the country lie some of the best agricultural lands in Guyana. The road will not only facilitate migration from coastal Guyana but it will also pave the way for even greater national development.
Last year, a Canada-based Guyanese came with a team to exploit the bauxite reserves in the area. At present, the only way to reach some of the lands in that part of Guyana is by river and everyone knows that river travel is tedious and time-consuming.
The farmers who tucked themselves away in that part of the country years ago cannot yet develop the agricultural potential of the area because they are away from the technical assistance they need. Their produce is limited to the amount they can market. Small wonder that Essequibo remains the Cinderella County.
There is also another impact that the road would have on the national development programme. At present people are rearing cattle even in the capital, something unheard of in any but the poorest countries in the world. The people who live in the area of the Del Conte road also rear cattle, albeit on a small scale because of the opportunity to move the products from cattle rearing to coastal markets.
But even more, those cattle farmers in the city would be able to move their stocks to the virgin areas that would now become accessible.
A country like Guyana cannot afford to have idle lands when the world at this time is predicting a diminishing food supply. It cannot in this day and age have its people taking so much longer to undertake a task that should be undertaken in about ten per cent of the time.
Almost forgotten is the deep water harbor facility that exists in that part of the country. Guyana needs a deep water harbor to facilitate the movement of goods from its neighbours to the south. Already there are plans to establish one in the Corentyne River. The Del Conte road, once restarted and completed, could really make Guyana the bridge between the Caribbean and the rest of South America.

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