Call on European Diplomats to demand Professional Independent Environmental Impact Study of Shore Base

Apr 13, 2022 Letters

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Dear Editor,

Reference to letter on shore base in Vreed-en-Hoop (KN 12). This shore base will severely alter the fauna in the area and pose significant risk of flooding on the East bank, West Bank, particularly the Canal Polders. It will change ecology of upstream areas of the river affecting communities. A loan is being sought for the project. Government should bring in experts for proper studies to be done before proceeding with approval for the base and seeking the loan to construct it. The European Union banking institution which has been approached for loan should mandate thorough, scientific studies before granting loans for the project.

My sources inform me that the shore base will be partially funded each by Exxon, private investors, and bank loans. Government will guarantee the loan but has no shares. The writer asked a pertinent question: Will taxpayers be taken for a ride?

It is in Exxon’s interest to have this shore base as it needs it for the yellowtail project. The private shareholders (investors) are coming up with partial funding of their own and the rest from loan. The government is offering a guarantee of the loan for the project. It is a win for the private investors.

Financial institutions from EU have been courted to provide financing alongside Exxon for the construction of this shore base on the western side of the Dem river mouth. A European banking institution out of Brussels, Belgium, has been approached to provide the loan for the project. The European Union is very strict on environmental matters and must maintain this position. The EU is not like Guyana and our EPA or a private company that approves environment impact assessments.

The lending institution in Belgium has insisted on strict environmental study and safeguards for the project before approving the loan. The lender wants a thorough scientific study of the impact of the shore base on the environment (including river, flow of water, population, fauna, etc.). The institution is demanding a detailed investigation before giving the go ahead. It demands an independent study away from Guyana’s EPA and a nepotistic private partner firm of the government that approves everything multinationals or the government wants.
The plan shows a shore base jutting out into the Demerara River that will impact on the flow of the river. It will pose grave impact on the river’s ecology and fauna down the entire coast of our country. The project goes two kilometres on western side of the mouth of the river mouth, the lower side. In that area, mud drift is from southeast to northwest. With the base in place, the mud from the flow will drift pass the river’s mouth that supplied continuous nutrient rich sling mud that feed the plankton, crabs, turtles, and other fauna, and all other life form along the coast. The shore base of 2 KM jutting out blocking flow of river on the western side of the Dem R mouth will cause accumulation of the drift on the mouth of the river and will starve the downstream side of the coast from the nutrient rich mud of the ecology there. The project will require huge capital to dredge the area in order to maintain the current river flows – that will burden taxpayers. This mud accumulation along with additional obstruction of the flow of water from the several shore bases jutting out into the river and the proposed Demerara River Bridge are likely to have severe impacts on the flow and ecology of the river. Narrowing the channel width along with the new proposed bridge will raise the river water.

Huge swaths of land in the near shore areas are likely to be flooded to the detriment of ecology. Lands in the Canal Polder and Wales estate area, that are already prone to flooding are likely to become permanently flooded. Is this all being done to provide wealth for a handful of cronies of officials?

While the project may be an opportunity for some government friends to garner huge amounts of wealth, the ordinary population around the coast and banks of the river will face the consequences.  The international lending institutions and private banks that are being approached for the loan, especially those from the EU, to finance this project should insist that proper environmental impact assessment be done by reputable professional firms. Approval studies from the EPA should not be blindly approved but compared with independent studies. Dr. Vincent Adams should also do a study of the impact of the project.

I appeal to the European Diplomats in Guyana to banks and lending institutions on the continent to insist on their own impact study. The EU must help us protect and save our environment. Please alert banks in Belgium and elsewhere that are being courted to finance this project to ensure that environmental impact studies are not compromised.

Yours truly,

Edward Burrowes

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