Dear Editor,
This venture is good. It should however help business folks to commute smoothly. Editor, we must also be reminded that most folks use the speed boat service to navigate the waters as well. However, while the new ferry service is intended to assist business folks and commuters as a whole several key factors need to be highlighted.
A new ferry would not solve the problem. The problem lies in navigation and this has to do with one, the captain, and the other the desilting of the Essequibo River. Many Essequibians would attest to the term or more rather the slang “sandbank”. Editor, this commonly refers to when the ferry gets stuck on a sand bank and has to wait until the tide rises before it could continue its journey.
When this happens passengers and business folks who thought they would be home at a certain time would not due to the delay. When this happens passengers would resort to taking the faster speedboats and this incurs a higher cost. Business folks have no other alternative but to stick it out in the river until help comes.
Editor, I outlined a factual situation because I was privy to this experience years ago when the government of Guyana had gotten a refurbished ferry from China. For starters, the captain struggled to moor that ferry unto the Parika stelling. Editor don’t get me wrong that captain was very experienced but there were hiccups/ problems mooring that ferry. I didn’t know what the issue was but the captain had attested to that. So focus should be on desilting the Essequibo River and training persons to operate those vessels and that is how we are going to fix the problem.
Right now these guys in office are only attempting to suppress the issue. The real issue lies in getting to the root cause and until we leave this quick fix syndrome behind and start addressing these and other critical issues head on we would be struggling with multiple issues when we still have not fixed one. Come on guys, let’s go back to the drawing board and do this together. Someone needs to start walking forward and not backwards.