In Guyana, 40,000 inhabitants cut off from the world because of a historic drought

On the outskirts of Nouveau Wacapou, a hamlet located a few kilometers from the town of Maripasoula, in the south of Guyana, an immense stone dike cuts off the flow of the Maroni. The sharp rocks form one of the river's many “jumps”, these rapids which punctuate the watercourse over its 600 kilometers. According to the Alukus, one of the Afro-descendant peoples of the region, the stones here represent “maanka shiba”, a man lying across the watercourse.

His body, usually modestly hidden by the silt-filled waters, was completely exposed by the drought. For 18 months, Guyana has been in a water deficit and the year 2024 surely risks becoming the hottest ever recorded by Météo France.

High cost of living and shortages

While there are still a few weeks of the dry season left, low water levels are already historically low. On the Maroni, a border river, certain jumps even allow you to reach the Surinamese bank on foot. On the contrary, the canoes which, from the coast, daily supply the river communities, surrounded by the tropical forest, no longer dare to challenge these perilous mineral barriers.

In Maripasoula, where nearly 10,000 people live, “Everything has doubled, even tripled,” panics Claude as he leaves “Chez Tony”, the main supermarket in the center. The pack of rice is €60 for 25 kg. The gas bottle costs €100 and we can't even find any anymore”. Several basic products such as water packs, eggs and even flour are also becoming increasingly rare.

Recently, even the “Chinese” lined up along the Surinamese coast, opposite Maripasoula, have been forced to obtain supplies by plane and drastically raise their prices. Usually, these supermarkets on stilts which form the backbone of the entire informal economy of the region, and primarily illegal gold panning, nevertheless offer unbeatable prices.

«Prices have caught up with those in France and there is a shortage of products, particularly fresh products. Even going head to head, we have to make sacrifices», deplores Rosiane Agésilas, member of the Apachi collective, bringing together citizens denouncing the consequences of enclavement.

Access to public services

As we move away from the town of Maripasoula, the largest commune in France where French is a very secondary language, the isolation becomes more and more significant. “Large canoes no longer pass at all and, with small ones, you often have to unload and pull by hand. Life has become very complicated”says Apaï, sitting on a slope [embarcadère] whose pier is now out of water.

The journey to Twenké, where he lives, now takes him five to six hours, compared to two in “high season”, and €80 for petrol. The liter, which increases from one day to the next, oscillates between four and five euros, condemning the most precarious to isolation and economic activity, already weak, to apathy.

In these villages far from the towns called “kampus”, several schools had to close because they were unable to provide school transport by canoe. Access to administrative services or health, already hazardous due to distances, has also declined. At the Antecume Pata dispensary, the first point of care for hundreds of people, medical services are now provided once every two weeks, by helicopter, with only a few hours of consultation on site.

Finally, thousands of people no longer have daily access to drinking water. The situation is very worrying in the kampus furthest upstream of the river, where several boreholes are completely dry but rationing is also the norm in the town of Papaïchton. In this town of 6,000 inhabitants, an hour's drive from Maripasoula, the water no longer flows from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. (1), or sometimes during the day, forcing the population to stock up on daily supplies.

40,000 people affected

Emergency solutions – described as insufficient by residents – were, however, put in place for the most affected villages, such as the sending of atmospheric fountains. The rectorate, for its part, announced that it was taking measures so that students could follow school remotely. In all, nearly 40,000 inhabitants, dependent on the Maroni and Oyapock rivers (on the border with Brazil where schoolchildren made the last return to school by helicopter) live in this parallel reality where everything is lacking.

But beyond Guyana, this drought, whose intensity is linked to the El Nino phenomenon and climate change, affects the entire Amazon basin. On November 1, Brazil, for example, declared a state of emergency in Amapa, a state neighboring Guyana, affected by a wave of fires that had already decimated part of the country's forests. Already at the end of September, the Colombian government sounded the alarm, indicating that the bed of the Amazon had decreased by more than 90%.

An emergency airlift

To prevent the burgeoning humanitarian crisis, the prefecture of Guyana deployed an “Orsec Water” plan (2) on October 29, an emergency system within the framework of which an airlift was put in place. For a week, army devices have been supplying isolated communities with water, food and also fuel in order to ensure “energy continuity” of the thermal power plants of Papaichton and Maripasoula producing most of the electricity of Haut Maroni .

The Territorial Collectivity of Guyana (CTG), which controls internal flights, has for its part announced it will double weekly freight capacities to reach 20 tonnes. During a press briefing on November 7, prefect Antoine Poussier confirmed that all of these subsidized flights “will not generate additional costs for the consumer”.

The transport price was set at 0.5 euros per kilo, below river freight rates, and the prefecture announced that it would put in place, with the CTG, a “device to regulate sales prices”, and controls followed by sanctions in the event of speculative inclinations.

River road

In Haut Maroni, the effects on prices are still awaited and shortages continue to worry, particularly those of gas bottles, which are impossible to bring in by plane. Perceived as late, the drought having been very severe since September, the mobilization of public authorities raises some hopes but is most often greeted with the skepticism of those who have seen too many unfulfilled promises. At the forefront of disappointments is the River Route, an old project to open up access desired by the population, which has been at a standstill for years.

Latest incident to date, during his visit last March, Emmanuel Macron entrusted the army with the task of carrying out a feasibility study for an “improved track” through the 150 kilometers of dense forest which separate Papaichton and Apatou, on the coastline.

The report, completed months ago, was submitted to the CTG and the government but has still not been made public. So, in the meantime, the eyes of Maripasoulians remain fixed on the river level, and we pray that the rainy season arrives as soon as possible in order to bring back a semblance of normality.

……………………………………….

What future for the climate in Guyana?

· By 2100, Guyana will experience a 15 to 25% reduction in rainfall compared to the years 1984 – 2014 with particularly marked drying in the first months of the year, around the “little summer” of March. This dynamic is regional, which could also contribute, in the long term, to the transformation of the Amazonian tropical forest into savannah.

· Climate change will worsen the frequency and intensity of extreme climatic phenomena such as the 50-year rains, extreme tropical rains responsible for violent floods. Furthermore, the rise in the level will accentuate the erosion of the coastline already underway.

· By 2100 temperatures will have increased by +1.5°C to +4°C in Guyana, exposing the population to the risk of hyperthermia, in particular due to the increase in “hot nights”, where the temperature does not does not drop below 26 degrees.