THE SEAWALLS FOREVER!

Dec 13, 2020 Consumer Concerns, News

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Consumer Concerns…

By PAT DIAL

Kaieteur News – The seawalls lie deep in the consciousness of Guyanese people, but especially Georgetowners. Yet, it has rarely been noticed by the news media, and the last time it was mentioned as an item of national concern, was five or six years ago when the ocean overtopped the wall and flooded the yards parallel to the public road.
This was the first time in living memory that there was such an occurrence, and it led to great panic. The authorities hurriedly constructed a barrier of standing concrete slabs on the walls to counter such overtopping. In the last few weeks, the seawalls have again featured in the news, but in a happier vein.
From Camp Street to the Demerara River, the wall had become disfigured by an accumulation of unsightly garbage and no one assumed the responsibility of cleaning it. A homeless man, Carl Melville, who sometimes slept there, was noticed by Dwayne Hackett trying to clean the garbage and immediately volunteered to help him. Hackett placed the incident on social media and immediately numbers of persons volunteered their services.
First Lady Arya Ali was one of the first to volunteer and the Ministry of Public Works, the Director of Solid Waste Department of the Georgetown City Council and the Fire Service became involved with her.
The Fire Service cleaned the bandstand and in a few days, all the garbage was removed and the seawalls appeared as if it had always been maintained!
Many have been high in their praises of this example of civic responsibility.
The seawalls had always been the promenade and park for the people of Georgetown and the surrounding villages, from the last quarter of the 19th century and continued to be so until the 1960s, when the country became plagued with political tensions and there were robberies on the seawalls.
For most of the 1960s, therefore, fewer and fewer people visited the seawalls.
In its heyday, the seawall was the most delightful place in Georgetown. The vast openness of the seascape and the surrounding landscape, the blue skies and silver clouds, the ever present seagulls and the steady flow of the health-giving trade winds and the enveloping peace and quietude attracted hundreds of people at all times of the day.
The beach, which today is rather muddy, was once covered with seashells, there would always be children exploring, and picking up seashells of different colours; sometimes they may find large conch shells.
The foreshore or continental shelf gradually rises and falls every 20 years and today, the foreshore land between Camp Street and the Pegasus Hotel has almost risen to the height of the wall and coconut trees and other vegetation grow on it. Likewise, the sea has reclaimed the land along the Kitty seawall, where houses once stood.
Indeed, a substantial building is still standing close to the wall near the Kitty pump station but the sea is under it. Old fishermen who set their nets on the foreshore sea could vividly describe the cyclical rise and fall of the beach.
The seawalls provided a favourite place for health enthusiasts. Many would go there to practise deep breathing of the clean and fresh sea breezes. Others would be cycling or even training for cycle races. Probably the most notable were the ones who went for physical culture. Many of this group would go to the seawalls by either jogging to get there or by cycle and they would arrive there at 5 o’clock, long before the sun had risen.
On moonlight nights, the seawalls were always a crowded promenade. Many went to socialize with friends, but all went to enjoy the beauty of the moon arising from the sea and the blue-green moonlight, which was brighter since there were no road lights to dilute it. Others would enjoy the various phases of the new moon with the background of purple skies embellished with thousands of stars, which appear brighter since there were no city lights.
Others would go to the seawalls in the late afternoons, to admire the sunsets gradually transforming into the blue light of dusk.
Another of the joys of the seawalls was the early evening Sunday concerts, given by the Militia Band and the Police Band at the Bandstand, which attracted hundreds of people.
Their repertoire consisted of light classical music including Strauss’ and other waltzes, ballet music such Delibes’ pizzicato and Sylvia, and at least one English patriotic song -“This royal throne of Kings” and Guyanese and Caribbean folk songs.
The concerts were arranged for early evening so that children could attend; many Guyanese in later life have admitted that their first exposure to classical music was from these bandstand concerts.
On Easter Monday, thousands of kite-flyers turned out from five o’clock in the morning.
Kites were all hand-made and were in a variety of shapes including box, birds, snakes but the predominant shape was the Guyanese octagon and in a variety of colours.
Singing engines, a kite, which made a loud droning sound, was one of the most popular. Kite flying was always combined with picnicking.
The Easter kite flying today is a pale reminiscence of the heydays.
As mentioned above, the political tensions and criminality kept people away from the seawalls in the 1960s.
By the 1990s, life had become more stable and people again began to frequent the seawalls, but the ambience had changed. There grew up stalls lining the parapet of the public road from the Kitty pump station to the Pegasus, selling refreshments – all of these stalls were well lit. The character of the seawalls had changed from a peaceful promenade to a lively fair.
Now that the tourism industry is being revived, the seawalls still offer an attractive attraction.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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