Stabroek News
August 14, 2001

Coastal zone management laws in Guyana represent a fragmented regulatory framework and need to be reviewed and updated.

Participants of the second national workshop on Integrated Coastal Zone Management (ICZM) heard this yesterday when environmental officer (ICZM) of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Andrea Marie, addressed them at the Hotel Tower.

Marie said the coastal zone was managed in a piecemeal manner as a result and "in an effort to foster better integrated coastal zone management in Guyana it is necessary to review and update the existing pieces of legislation."

In the ICZM action plan, there would be a survey of the existing legislation to examine those relevant to the ICZM and a review would be done to identify gaps, overlaps and weaknesses, Marie stated.

Minister of Agriculture, Navin Chandarpal, told the participants that careful management was needed for the ICZM to minimise the impacts of the agriculture sector, which had a huge effect on the coastal zone.

He pointed out that the largest portion of the Gross Domestic Product was based on agricultural activities and almost all occurred on the coast. He noted, too, that a large percentage of the population was linked to the agricultural sector and emphasised the need for its impact on the ICZM to be managed efficiently.

Main exports like rice, sugar, were being done on the coast together with large industries such as fisheries production, and livestock rearing. Chandarpal said the drainage and irrigation (D&I) system in Guyana had to be an elaborate one because the coast was below sea level.

He stated it was a costly exercise to upgrade and maintain the D&I system and whenever there was a failure, flooding occurred which resulted in environmental impacts and economic losses.

An important aspect of the agriculture sector was land use planning, the minister said.

He recalled there was some debate over a stretch of land in the Corentyne area where the Neighbourhood Democratic Council of Number 19 Village wanted Guyana Sugar Corporation (GUYSUCO) to open up a piece of land to ease the flooding. Both rice farming and aquaculture were ongoing in the area, Chandarpal said, so if the land was drained it would benefit the farmers but GUYSUCO would have been affected if the water accessed its cane fields.

This was one example of where careful management was required because negative impacts would occur if there were no proper controls.

Yesterday's workshop was the second of four to be held. The committee will be visiting communities in the coastal regions to hold discussions on ICZM.

Chairman of yesterday's opening session and director of the EPA, Dr David Singh, noted that the workshops would be meaningless and the comments and suggestions purely academic unless they were converted to action.

The objectives of the ICZM action plan is to facilitate research and training in ICZM and to provide guidelines towards alleviating the adverse impacts on the coastal zone with special reference to sea level rise.

Marie said among the activities set out in the plan were: the delineation of the coastal zone; review of existing legislation; public awareness of ICZM; hydrological and climatological data collection systems; and groundwater resources of coastal aquifers.

Marie stated Guyana's coastal natural resources were of critical importance to the country since they supported human settlement, agriculture, fisheries, mangroves, tourism, industry, transportation, and water supply.

Marie said the coastal and near inland network of hydrological and climatological data collection systems were inadequate and constrained by a lack of resources.

She said most of the stations were manual and it was hoped that automation could be possible.

Marie noted that some uncertainty still existed with regard to quality and volume of existing reserves of ground water. She said ground water management strategies were necessary to ensure the safe and long-term production of coastal wells.

It was critical to examine the risk of possible salinisation of coastal wells due to seawater intrusion, she stated.

ICZM will be supporting shore zone monitoring, a European Union programme. Marie said the programme should include data relating to population, climate, tide, housing, mangrove distribution, sea defences and land use.

This would allow for data analysis, which would facilitate better predictions and decisions relating to monitoring of the shore zone.

Among the issues discussed at yesterday's workshop were climate change and coastal zone management; solid waste management as it related to ICZM; and ICZM: integration, institutions, issues and principles.