Using ‘hearsay’ as an instrument of information is ill-advised

Mar 22, 2014 Letters

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DEAR EDITOR,
I was not disposed to replying to Mr. Charles Sohan’s letter (KN Feb 25) concerning a report on an interview with myself, but some of my colleagues have urged me to do so, if only to correct some of his misconceptions. The interview was neither solicited nor encouraged and its superlative style was the choice of the interviewer.
Mr. Sohan has misdirected himself into making assertions which are questionable and he should be enlightened. He claims that I have had no hydraulic engineering experience; that he has no awareness of my sterling dedication to the Drainage and Irrigation of Guyana; that I was appointed Commissioner of the East Demerara Water Conservancy and must have had some responsibility for the Hope Canal Project launched during my tenure of office. He supports the report on my criticism of the location of the Marriott Hotel, but with his own assessment.
Concerning experience in hydraulic engineering, any District Engineer working on the coastal region of Guyana obtained experience. Prior to 1957, I had worked as a technical assistant in the East Demerara District, and later as District Engineer for the Essequibo Coast and Islands. I recognized the limitations in the practice of engineering through the need for better knowledge of the engineering properties of soil. This applied to both drainage and irrigation and to road construction.
Hutchinson and Lacey, the two progenitors of the Hydraulics Division, had pointed out that an Engineer with good technical knowledge of the engineering properties of soil was necessary to enhance the planning and implementation of Drainage and Irrigation projects. Even before their arrival I read the research papers of stalwarts like Siccama and was struck by the comments of Professor J.B. Harrison, Director of Science and Agriculture in British Guiana, in his report to the Colonial Office: ‘the colony appears to be satisfied to work in the dark, trusting to the efflux of time to enable it to muddle through with a fight against the very varying forces of Nature’. This was sufficient inspiration to incite my interest.
Mr. Sohan’s claim that I was appointed a Commissioner of the East Demerara Water Conservancy which fathered the Hope Canal Project must have been based on hearsay. I was handed a rather voluminous document entitled ‘Engineering design for the East Demerara Water Conservancy’ and asked for my comments.
The National Drainage and Irrigation Authority had its own Consultants – two local firms and one foreign. It is understandable that if they had access to a local Geotechnical Engineer such as myself, they would seek his assistance in view of the difficult nature of the soils encountered. Two of us were invited to give an opinion. When we thought that we had expressed ourselves adequately, we withdrew from the meetings. I did not consider that I should have informed Mr. Sohan, or anyone outside the committee, especially in view of the sensitive nature of the project.
I would wish to clarify my involvement in matters pertaining to the engineering properties of soils, in the interest of any project requiring this discipline. Because of my long interest in the subject, I was encouraged to specialize in it by research after graduation at the Imperial College of Science and Technology, University of London, where I studied under a scholarship awarded by the Government of British Guiana in 1949.
Upon graduation, I wished to continue research in the subject as the College had one of the finest Geotechnical Engineers in Britain, and I had approached him for assistance. At the instance of Mr. Rupert Craig, then Deputy Director of Public Works, a large sample of clay soil from the coastal area (800 lbs) was sent to the College’s laboratory for research on its engineering properties for application on all schemes involving earthworks – drainage and irrigation, sea defences or road construction.
I was more interested in roads, but considered the requirements of all three. It took me eighteen months to cover what I wanted to do and I returned home to find that there were no laboratory facilities to enable practice; A Materials Laboratory was equipped at my direction and I was thereafter allowed to exercise my expertise on roads, sea defences or any other engineering facility.
When Professor Arthur Lewis was invited by Mr. Burnham to review Guyana’s Development Plan at our Aid Donor’s Conference in 1967, the learned Economist advised that the country needed a ‘professionally versatile Engineer’ to monitor the Development Plan’s progress and advise on adjustments. The first Engineer was supplied by the British Government in the person of Mr. T.V. Garland, a former Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department and later Director of Public Works of Kenya; the second was Mr. Steve Naraine who later became Minister of Works. I was the third, appointed in 1972.
My inspection and monitoring of any technical project remained at my discretion and approved by
the Minister of Economic Development, who was Mr. Hoyte. I studied, by actual inspection, the previous Drainage and Irrigation schemes at Tapakuma, Boeraserie, and even the infamous Torani canal project, before becoming involved, subsequently, with the consultants for the Mahaica/Mahaicony scheme as a Project Engineer in association with Sir William Halcrow and Partners and the Brazilian firm Geotecnica when I was Partner of a local firm of Consulting Engineers and Planners.
Mr. Sohan has spent much time outside of Guyana, after leaving the Public Works Department, and may be keen to make critical assessments of projects and personnel, since it seems to be a popular activity at the moment. However, an Engineer may sound ‘wise and wonderful’ in his assessments, but should he use ‘hearsay’ as an instrument of information he may run the risk of being considered ‘ignorant’ in spite of experience. I would prefer to correct him in order to avoid that.
The case of the Marriott could be serious, bearing in mind that an engineer should consider extreme conditions in design and location. Previously, I had been skeptical of the predicted extent of sea level rise on coastal Guyana and I decided to follow the deliberations of the Institution of Civil Engineers (London) and the Royal Society of England. Both of them seem worried.
There is possibility of a large tsunami arising from eruption of an undersea volcano off the Canary Islands which, according to the seismologists, could send a giant tsunami across the Atlantic, affecting the east coast of America and the south Atlantic. The timing of such an eruption is still a guess, but the results could be catastrophic, and there is little that can be done to avoid it.
Quite apart from that, the Institution of Civil Engineers has become worried at the exceptional floods in London, the highest in 250 years, which have invaded the houses of many people. They have called a special conference in May, this year, inviting engineers practicing in coastal regions of the globe to attend to discuss implications and possible action wherever extreme flooding might occur, possibly because of unpredictable changes in atmospheric conditions. If the River Thames overflowed its banks, could not this happen to the Demerara or Essequibo rivers?
The Americans are reported to be planning, I do not know from which Department, an early warning system to alert them in case a tsunami is triggered and approaches their Atlantic coast; but there seems to be little they could do. But ‘perhaps they could consult with a certain ‘learned’ Structural Engineer based in Guyana!
Philip Allsopp

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