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Vol. 30, Issue 44 QUEENS/LONG ISLAND/BRONX/MANHATTAN NOVEMBER 1-7, 2019
HIGH TIDE THREAT
Huge waves crash over the seawall in Guyana causing extensive fl ooding. Guyana’s Department of Public Information
Guyana needs a new capital as high tides threaten coast
By Bert Wilkinson
As unusually high tides batter
Guyana’s below sea level coastline
triggering extensive flooding
in several communities, the
issue of moving the capital and
population to higher ground is
once again engaging the attention
of authorities.
As Guyanese watch wave after
wave of dirty brown water easily
crash over five-foot high seawalls
inundating homes and farmlands,
fears that an extended
period of high tides could cause
even more damage have begun
to arouse the Guyanese psyche
to an extent not experienced in
decades.
Traditional and social media
video footage of waves easily
crashing over the sea defense
system, rolling over the lifeline
east-west highway to Suriname
and into yards and, homesteads
and farmlands pushed at least
one senior official to suggest
that Guyana may soon need to
build a new capital and move
hundreds of thousands of people
away from the coast. His view is
widely shared even though most
locals balk at the idea of having
to start life all over if such is the
case.
Most of Guyana’s 270 milelong
coastline is a full six feet
below the level of the Atlantic,
forcing authorities to spend millions
annually maintain an intricate
protection system involving
floodgates, drainage canals,
lakes and open trenches. The
gates can only be opened at low
tides to drain off flood waters
and the system can’t only handle
no more than two inches of rain
in a 24-hour period.
So this week’s cycle of
extremely high tides has one
again brought back the issue of
moving the capital away from
the coast.
“We should seriously consider
moving the population to
higher ground, and start building
a modern city,” Junior Infrastructure
Minister Jaipaul Sharma
said after touring several
coastal communities experiencing
repeat flooding cycles. Current
high tide warnings extend
into early November, but dozens
of cattle and poultry farmers
have already lost out to salty
flood waters that could render
farmlands useless for months
to come.
Apart from the annual high
tides cycles and the havoc they
wreak, Sharma pointed to global
concerns about sea level rises as
massive glaciers melt in the far
north of the world, suggesting
that the problem will be more
permanent than cyclical.
“I will say that this is the
effects of global warming and
higher global temperatures
that melt glaciers adding to the
amount of sea water that cause
global sea level rise,” he said,
repeating warnings about moving
the capital.
Continued on Page 18
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