Seawall development
Editorial
Stabroek News
December 20, 2002
In our Monday edition we reported on a competition being organised by the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA) for developing the Georgetown Seawall. In an interview with this newspaper, Minister of Tourism Manzoor Nadir said that Cabinet had mandated the CHPA to develop a plan for the area, and that pursuant to this the agency was now inviting suitably qualified individuals and firms to submit design proposals for a zone bounded by the Seawall road to the north, the Kitty Pump Station to the east, the drainage trench to the south and Camp road to the west.
The Minister told this newspaper that this section was the first of a two-phase project which would involve landscaping and beautification. It was expected that the designs would include areas for restaurants, a boardwalk, booths for art and craft and other tourism-related activities. Phase two of the project, he was reported as saying, would involve the seawall from Le Meridien Pegasus to Cummings Lodge. The designs submitted are to be judged by a committee of the CHPA Board, and an award will be presented to the winner.
The Seawall has been a traditional relaxation spot for Guyanese going right back into the nineteenth century. In fact, the ocean was an attraction even before the wall was actually built. In the earliest days of Georgetown citizens promenaded on a sandy beach, long since reclaimed by the waves. The first portion of wall which had some measure of stability was that which began at the battery belonging to the fort, and ended at a spot near what is now the Round House. It took five years to be built, and was completed in 1860. After some failures and the intervention of Dutch hydraulics engineer, Baron Hora Siccama, the stretch between Camp road and Kitty was completed in the early 1880s.
From that time onward, the Georgetown populace of all classes regarded it as its bounden duty to repair to the Seawall on Sundays and holidays. Ladies of fashion paraded themselves and assessed the competition, families played, and young bloods eyed up the girls. They would get there on foot or by carriage, and at a later period, sometimes on bicycles. When the tram-lines were laid, they naturally had to run to the Seawall as well.
It is entirely appropriate, therefore, that the Cabinet should be seeking to upgrade this recreation area which is of such long standing. As time passes, fewer and fewer open spaces are left in the capital for any purpose whatsoever, least of all for families to enjoy themselves. However, there is a word of caution. In recent times the Seawall has become degraded, with ad hoc stalls dotted here and there generating the accompanying litter, and most of all, boom-boxes blaring out their sometimes vulgar lyrics at a volume which only the hearing-impaired can appreciate.
When one reads of the plans to commercialize the area with restaurants, etc, one does wonder, given the present state of our economy, what that will mean in practice. What we don't want is for this zone to deteriorate into one oversized dancehall arena, so that people with children, joggers, and those out for a quiet evening stroll will be frightened away. There is certainly nothing wrong with an oversized dancehall arena, it must be said; it is just that the Seawall is not the appropriate location for it. And the thought that a possibly noisy, commercial environment might eventually extend all the way from the Pegasus to Cummings Lodge, would not be met with enthusiasm by those who prefer to watch the sunset over the seawall in a less developed context. Is there not an argument for leaving the stretch between Kitty and Cummings Lodge just as it is?
