Georgetown: Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson said that every time the spring tides come they take about 20-30 metres of mangrove trees with them leaving the coastline unprotected.
This comment was made in relation to the current frightening situation where miles of sea defences have been breached by ocean waters over the past weeks causing excessive flooding.
In some areas, acres of rice lands and damage to the tune of tens of millions of dollars were lost.
“Every time the tides came in, it took 20-30 metres of the trees. So that’s where we are – it just disappeared. But of course, we have emergency intervention but nature is a hard task. It is going to get worst. We have to now do much more, as the idea was always retaining and holding the line.”
Patterson insisted that climate change is real and throughout history there were miles along the country’s coastline that was protected by mangrove trees and natural earthen embankments.
“That part of Mahaicony is under threat now. That area was always protected by mangroves. About a year ago, we have started seeing signs of patches…it’s like a 5km area. We noticed patches off 100feet. In the 2019 budget, money was put in to fix these patches,” Minister Patterson noted.
The minister acknowledged the challenge of starting to place rock armours to encourage the regeneration of the mangrove but the spring tides that comes twice a month have been eroding the strides, wiping out acres at a time.
“When you say hold the line you put up a seawall. Discussions to move inland have been on the table for 40 years now. The discussion has been going on for quite a while but what we have to start thinking is that maybe moving some of our key industries as we grow and get petroleum dollars we will have new industries. We should think where we want them located,” he said.
Minister of Public Telecommunications, Cathy Hughes, supported his point. “These are the kinds of discussion that we need to have… all Guyanese regardless of your political persuasion, we need the private sector, we need the civil society to be part of those discussions.”
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