Sailing on water with nothing to drink

Oct 25, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Essequibians are a people who rarely complain. I often wonder if it is the people’s penchant for silence in the face of adversity that resulted in Essequibo being dubbed the Cinderella County. They are aware that they live far from Georgetown and the cost and time spent on commuting to and from GT is an acceptable inconvenience they are committed to living with.
A few days ago I travelled from Supenaam to Parika on one of the two Chinese built ferries plying the route at less than one third the price charged by the speed boat operators. These two ferries are a life savings investment for Essequibians made during the reign of the PPP government.
I arrived at Supenaam minutes before the 12pm departure, boarded the boat and sat directly opposite the canteen since I did not get a chance to purchase anything to drink before boarding the boat. The canteen was closed
Half an hour into the voyage I began to notice a significant number of passengers making their way to the canteen too and then walked away in disgust. By this time, my thirst was getting the better of me. Sometime later a teacher from my school days came by. I told him that, “I am sitting here since I came aboard, waiting for the canteen to open.” His response was, “Forget the beers! This is a disgrace, one can’t get a drink of water on this boat.” I arrived at Parika, dehydrated.
I was told that not one of the ferries has an operational canteen. Now, to have people out at sea on a 90 minutes journey without access to drinking water should be considered a criminal offence in the 21 century. Think of the possibility of that boat getting stuck on a sand bank or some kind of engine component failure for a few hours.
If we are to excel as a tourist destination, these are the kinds of glitches, very often unnoticeable to us that we have to fix. With employment so difficult to come by, I am certain that there are many people out there who would be willing to grasp the opportunity to pay a fee to vend from the boat’s canteen.
The management of THD should address this situation immediately, even if it meant allowing someone to vend for free.

Rudolph Singh

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