Guyana
From HFA-PEDIA
Contents |
HFA National Reports
National Report 2007: Unreported
National Report 2006: Unreported
National Platform:
Unreported
HFA National Focal Point:
Civil Defense Commission
Address: Camp Ayangauna Annex, Thomas Lands, Georgetown.
Tel: +592-226-1114, 226-1117, 226-9201, 226-8815, Fax: +592-226-0486 (225-0486)
E-mail: info@cdc.org
Contact person:
Col.Chabilall Ramsarup, Director General
E-mail: info@cdc.org, chubbyr@hotmail.com, cdc@sdnp.org.gy
Alternative contact:
Lt. Col. Francis Abraham, Deputy Director General
E-mail: franham2002@yahoo.com
Other Contacts
UN System Coordination
UN Resident Coordinator
Ms. Kathleen Israel
Interim Resident coordinator (RC i.a.) / PAHO Representative
E-mail: israelki@guy.paho.org, cdelcastillo@undp.org
UNDP
Mr. Youssef Mahmoud
42 Brickdam & United Nations Place, Stabroek, Box 10960, Georgetown - Guyana (PNY),
Tel: 00(592-2) 264 048 / 259 333
Fax: 00(592-2) 262 942
E-mail: registry.gy@undp.org
Website: http://www.sdnp.org.gy/undp
CDERA Member
Lieutenant Colonel Wedna Cambridge, Commissioner
Civil Defense Commission
Camp Ayan, Thomas Lands, Georgetown, Guyana
Tel: (592-2) 61 114 /61 117 / 69 201 / 68 815
Fax: (592-2) 61 027
E-mail: cdc@sdnp.org.gy
Roger Luncheon - National Disaster Coordinator
Office of the President, Jew Gardens Street, Guyana
Tel:(592) 22-57051, Fax: (592) 226-3395
E-Mail: Luncheon@sdnp.org.gy
Country profile
Official Name: Conventional long form: Cooperative Republic of Guyana Former: British Guiana
Capital: Georgetown
Area: Total: 214,970 sq km (land: 196,850 sq km water: 18,120 sq km)
Population density: 769,095 (July 2007)
Ethnic Groups: East Indian 50%, black 36%, Amerindian 7%, white, Chinese, and mixed 7%.
Religion: Christian 50%, Hindu 35%, Muslim 10%, other 5%.
Official Language: English (official), Amerindian dialects, Creole, Caribbean Hindustani (a dialect of Hindi), Urdu.
Government: Republic - unitary multiparty republic with one legislative house (National Assembly)
Currency: Guyanese Dollar (GYD)
Climate: Tropical; hot, humid, moderated by northeast trade winds; two rainy seasons (May to August, November to January).
Geographic description
Guyana is a country located in the northeastern corner of South America. It is bordered by Venezuela to the west, Brazil to the southwest and south, Suriname (along the Courantyne River) to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the north. Most of the country’s population occupies the narrow coastal strip. Guyana has a narrow Atlantic coastal plain that extends up to 16 km (10 mi) inland and includes reclaimed land protected by seawalls and canals. Inland, a high rainforest covers three-fourths of the country. The Pakaraima Mountains in the west provide headwaters for the Essequibo River. The narrow plain that extends along the country’s Atlantic coast has been modified considerably by humans. Much of the area, which measures only about 10 miles (16 kilometres) at its widest point, has been reclaimed from the sea by a series of canals and some 140 miles of dikes. The coastal plain’s inland border is generally marked by canals that separate the plain from interior swamps. South of the coastal zone the forested land rises gently and has sandy soils.
About 40 miles inland from the coast is a region of undulating land that rises from 50-foot (15-metre) hills on the coastal side of the region to 400-foot (120–metre) ones on the western side. The area is between 80 and 100 miles wide and is widest in the southeast. It is covered with sands, from which it takes its name as the white-sands (zanderij) region. A small savanna region in the east lies about 60 miles from the coast and is surrounded by the white-sands belt. The sands partly overlie a low crystalline plateau that is generally less than 500 feet in elevation. The plateau forms most of the country’s centre and is penetrated by igneous rock intrusions that cause the numerous rapids of Guyana’s rivers.
Beyond the crystalline plateau, the Kaieteurian Plateau lies generally below 1,600 feet above sea level; it is the site of the spectacular Kaieteur Falls, noted for their sheer 741-foot initial plunge. The plateau is overlain with sandstones and shales that, in the south, form the extensive Rupununi Savanna region. The Acarai Mountains (Serra Acaraí), which rise to about 2,000 feet, rim the plateau on the southern border, and it is crowned on the western frontier by the Pakaraima Mountains, which rise to 9,094 feet (2,772 metres) in Mount Roraima. The Rupununi Savanna is bisected by the east–west Kanuku Mountains, which rise to almost 3,000 feet.
Guyana’s four main rivers — the Courantyne, Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo — all flow from the south and empty into the Atlantic along the eastern section of the coast. Among the tributaries of the Essequibo, the Potaro, Mazaruni, and Cuyuni drain the northwest, and the Rupununi drains the southern savanna. The coast is cut by shorter rivers, including the Pomeroon, Mahaica, Mahaicony, and Abary. The rivers are part of the watershed of the Amazon and Orinoco rivers, and the headwaters of the Rupununi in Brazil are often confused with those of the Amazon. Drainage is poor, because the average gradient is only one foot per mile, and there are swamps and flooding in the mountains and savannas. The rivers are not suitable for long-distance transportation because they are broken by interior falls, and in the coastal zone their mouths and estuaries are blocked by mud and by sandbars that may occur two to three miles out to sea.
The coastal soils are fertile but acidic. The fine-particle, grayish blue clays of the coastal plain are composed of alluvium from the Amazon deposited by the south equatorial ocean current and of much smaller amounts of alluvium from the country’s rivers. They overlie white sands and clays and can support intensive agriculture but must be subjected to fallowing to restore fertility. Pegasse soil, a type of tropical peat, occurs behind the coastal clays and along the river estuaries, while silts line the banks of the lower rivers. Reef sands occur in bands in the coastal plain, especially near the Courantyne and Essequibo rivers. The rock soils of the interior are leached and infertile, and the white sands are almost pure quartz.
High temperatures, heavy rainfall with small seasonal differences, high humidity, and high average cloud cover provide climatic characteristics of an equatorial lowland. Temperatures are remarkably uniform. At Georgetown the daily temperature varies from 74° to 86° F (23° to 30° C), and the mean temperature is about 80° F (27° C). The constant heat and high humidity are mitigated near the coast by the trade winds. Rainfall derives mainly from the movement of the intertropical front, or doldrums. It is heavy everywhere on the plateau and the coast. The annual average at Georgetown is about 90 inches (2,290 millimetres), and on the interior Rupununi Savanna it is about 70 inches. On the coast a long wet season, from April to August, and a short wet season, from December to early February, are sufficiently well marked on the average, but in the southern savannas the short wet season does not occur. Total annual rainfall is variable, and seasonal drought can occur in July and August when the southeast trade winds parallel the coast. Variations in Guyana’s climatic patterns have a determining effect on tropical crop production.
The country is divided traditionally between the coast, where most of the population is concentrated, and the interior. The coastal population is heterogeneous, its inhabitants descended from the labourers brought in to work the sugarcane plantations. The interior, despite scattered ranching and mining settlements, is largely the province of the indigenous Indians.
Society
Guyanese society is predominantly rural, most of the people occupying villages in the coastal region. The highest population concentrations are along the estuary of the Demerara River and between the mouths of the Berbice and Courantyne rivers. Village units are of distinctive rectangular shapes, with the settlement areas nearest the ocean and connected to one another by the coastal highway; each village’s farmlands extend inland, often for several miles, and are separated from neighbouring village lands by canals. Villages range in size from several hundred to several thousand persons. The commonly found wood and concrete-block dwellings are usually built on stilts above the flood-prone land and are connected by footbridges to the streets, which are built over the drainage and irrigation canals. Georgetown is the country’s main port and its largest city. Located at the mouth of the Demerara River, it lies below sea level and is protected by dikes along both the river and the sea. Other important towns include the interior bauxite-mining centre of Linden and the market centre of New Amsterdam, located on the mouth of the Berbice River. Agricultural centres, such as the sugarcane plantation of Port Mourant, east of New Amsterdam, and the rice centre of Anna Regina, north of the Essequibo River estuary, provide commercial and marketing functions in the rural areas of the coastal zone.
About half the people of Guyana are of South Asian descent, most of the rest are of African ancestry. American Indians inhabited Guyana prior to European settlement, but little is known of them except that their name for the land, guiana (“land of waters”), gave the country its name. It was colonized by the Dutch in the 17th century. The British occupied the territory during the Napoleonic Wars and afterward purchased the colonies of Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo, which were united in 1831 as British Guiana. The slave trade was abolished in 1807, but emancipation of the 100,000 slaves in the colonies was not complete until 1838. From the 1840s, South Asian and Chinese indentured servants were brought to work the plantations; by 1917 almost 240,000 South Asians had migrated to British Guiana. It was made a crown colony in 1928 and granted home rule in 1953. Political parties began to emerge, developing along ethnic lines as the People’s Progressive Party (largely South Asian) and the People’s National Congress (PNC; largely black). The PNC formed a coalition government and led the country into independence as Guyana in 1966. In 1970 Guyana became a republic within the Commonwealth; in 1980 it adopted a new constitution. In the last decades of the 20th century, Guyana moved away from the socialist approach first taken following independence. At the beginning of the 21st century, it was still struggling to achieve economic and political stability.
The indigenous peoples of Guyana are collectively known as Amerindians and constitute about 4 percent of the population. Indian groups include the Warao (Warrau), Arawak, Carib, Wapisiana (Wapishana), Arecuna, the mixed “Spanish Arawak” of the Moruka River, and many more in the forest areas. The Makusí (Macussí or Macushí) are the most prominent of the savanna peoples. Sizable concentrations of Amerindians inhabit the far west along the border with Venezuela and Brazil. They are rarely seen in the populated coastal areas, although a few have interbred with blacks and East Indians. Since 1970, traditional Amerindian lands near the international borders have come under government control, although Amerindians continue to hold village lands informally throughout Guyana’s interior. The other major elements in the population are predominantly coastal dwellers. Descendants of African slaves form the oldest group; they abandoned the plantations after full emancipation in 1838 to become independent peasantry or town dwellers. The Afro-Guyanese constitute about one-third of the population. The East Indians came mostly as indentured labour from India to replace Africans in plantation work. They form the largest racial group in the country—about half the population—and have been increasing more rapidly than the others. The East Indians are the mainstay of plantation agriculture, and many are independent farmers and landowners, have done well in trade, and are well represented among the professions. The Chinese and Portuguese also entered originally as agricultural labourers but are now rarely found outside the towns. They are active in business and the professions, and their influence is disproportionate to their numbers; they have not been increasing, however, and together they constitute only a tiny percentage of the population. Europeans other than Portuguese are few, and most are short-term inhabitants. While every kind of racial mixture may be found, mulattoes (persons of mixed white and black ancestry) are by far the most common. Most of them live in towns, and a high proportion are in clerical or professional work.
The major religions are Christian (chiefly Anglican and Roman Catholic) and Hindu. Fundamentalist Protestantism has made inroads in the 20th century, mainly in Georgetown. There is also a sizable minority of Muslims. Animistic religions are still practiced by some of the Amerindian peoples. The official and principal language is English, but a creole patois is spoken throughout the country. Hindi and Urdu are heard occasionally among older East Indians.
By the late 20th century the number of foreign-born, long-term residents was insignificant. Emigration has been a drain on the country’s human resources as thousands of persons have left annually, going mainly to the United States, Canada, England, and Caribbean islands. Many of the emigrants have been skilled and professional people whose loss has intensified the country’s severe economic problems. East Indians have emigrated in large numbers to flee what they consider political persecution, a number of them having sought part-time work across the Courantyne River in western Suriname.
The economy
Guyana has a developing market economy with both public and private ownership. Major exports include sugar, rice, and bauxite. Since independence Guyana has remained locked into a typical colonial economic dependency on agricultural and mined products, most notably sugarcane and bauxite. Independence brought economic reforms under a socialist-leaning government, but the effect on the old economic cycle has been minimal. Although the government permits a three-sector economy—private, public, and cooperative—the public sector remains heavily dominant. Government management of the economy has become direct and significant. During the 1970s the government nationalized U.S. and Canadian bauxite holdings; in 1976 it nationalized the vast holdings of the Booker McConnell companies in Guyana, which included coastal sugarcane plantations as well as an array of light manufacturing and commercial enterprises. By the mid-1980s it was estimated that the government controlled directly more than 80 percent of Guyana’s economy. All nationalized businesses have been reorganized under the Guyana State Corporation. The state-owned Guyana Sugar Corporation controls the sugarcane plantations, and the Guyana Mining Enterprise Ltd. was established to oversee local mineral production.
The Guyanese economy has deteriorated under government management policies. Members of the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) political party have been placed in managerial positions, leading to the exodus of former managers and clerical workers. Declining output, a reliance on volatile external commodity markets, and a reduced tax base have all increased financial deficits. External debt has risen precipitously, and a devalued currency has been eroded by speculation in the local black market. Reduced fuel imports have led to widespread power outages, and a government austerity program all but eliminated imported food and consumer goods. Guyana’s per capita income (estimated at about $600 in the late 1980s) places it among the world’s poorest countries. Improvements in economic conditions became dependent upon foreign aid and a variety of regional and reciprocal trade agreements.
Trade associations have an important influence in Guyanese government. The Trade Union Congress is an association of major unions, among which are the Guyana Mine Workers’ Union, which is composed almost exclusively of black workers, and the Guyana Agricultural and General Workers’ Union is a predominantly East Indian association.
Economic Resources
The most important mineral resource is the extensive bauxite deposits between the Demerara and Berbice rivers. There are also significant deposits of manganese at Matthews Ridge in the northwest, about 30 miles east of the Venezuelan frontier. Diamonds occur in the Mazaruni and other rivers of the Pacaraima Mountains. Gold is found in both alluvial and subsurface deposits. Other minerals include copper, iron ore, molybdenite (the source of molybdenum), nickel, white sand (used in glass manufacture), kaolin (china clay), and graphite. The government has encouraged oil exploration, but no significant reserves have been found. The main biological resource consists of the hardwoods of the tropical rain forest and especially the greenheart tree, which is resistant to termites, decay, and marine erosion. The shrimps off the coast and a few inland fishes form the basis of the nation’s fishing industry, and the grasses of the savanna regions are used for cattle grazing.
Most of Guyana’s energy must be imported; domestic electricity is produced largely by thermal generation and is available only on the coastal plain and along the lower reaches of the rivers. Hydroelectric potential in Guyana is considerable, especially at Tiger Hill on the Demerara River and Tiboku Falls on the Mazaruni. Development is hampered, however, by the remoteness of the falls and the large amounts of capital needed for generation and transmission facilities.
Agriculture, forestry, and fishing
Agriculture is concentrated on the narrow sea-level coastal plain between the Essequibo and Courantyne rivers. Land-use patterns still reflect early Dutch and British water-control techniques. Arable land is laid out in strips between the sea or a river and inland swamps. It is protected on all sides by dikes and canals that are used for both irrigation and drainage. The land reclaimed from the sea is fertile but acidic; lost fertility must be returned to the soil by periodic fallowing or the addition of fertilizers.
Food crops include cassava, corn (maize), bananas, vegetables, and citrus fruits. Cash crops are mainly sugarcane and rice but also include coffee and cacao. Both sugarcane and rice are cultivated through a combination of mechanization and hand labour. Agricultural production increased during the mid-20th century, mainly because mechanization extended cultivable lands, although output stagnated in later decades as the entire economy foundered. East Indian workers overwhelmingly predominate in agriculture.
Livestock production is carried out on the Rupununi Savanna and on the coastal plain. Animals include beef cattle, dairy cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, and poultry.
Forestry activities are hampered by the lack of adequate transportation, the difficulty of cutting the extremely hard wood of Guyana’s trees, and the shortage of facilities for the sawing, storing, and shipping of timber. Most of the timber produced for the domestic market and for export is from the greenheart tree.
Many fishing facilities have been improved, and total production has increased as fishing has become a more important part of the economy. Shrimping is carried out primarily for export.
Finance and trade
The Bank of Guyana, established in 1965, has the sole right of note issue and acts as banker to the government and other banks. The country’s major commercial banks include three local banks and branches of Canadian and Indian banks. Other financial services are provided by the Guyana Cooperative Agricultural and Industrial Development Bank and the New Building Society; insurance companies, most of which are foreign-owned; and more than 1,500 cooperative societies, which serve as savings institutions and offer agricultural credit.
Guyana’s major trading partners are the United States, the United Kingdom, and Trinidad and Tobago. Guyana joined the Caribbean Free Trade Association (Carifta) in 1965 and then became a member of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (Caricom), which replaced Carifta in 1973. The major exports are bauxite and alumina, sugar, and rice. Shrimps, diamonds, molasses, rum, and timber are also sold abroad. Major imports include fuels and lubricants, machinery, vehicles, textiles, and foods.
Transportation
The limited road and highway system is partly paved and partly made of burnt clay. The few hundred miles of paved roads are mostly in the coastal zone. The interior has few roads. Guyana’s coastal railway, established in 1848 as South America’s first rail line, was discontinued in the 1970s, ending passenger service. A remaining freight line connects the manganese mines at Matthews Ridge with Port Kaituma on the Kaituma River, and another transports bauxite between Ituni and Linden. Guyana Airways Corporation operates scheduled domestic and international flights. Timehri International Airport, established in 1968 and located 25 miles from Georgetown, is the country’s main airport and is served by several international airlines. Domestic commercial and private aircraft, chiefly carrying passengers and equipment, use landing strips and the quieter stretches of rivers. Barges and small boats carry people and agricultural products in the canals of the coastal estates and villages. Larger boats traverse the estuaries that intersect the coastal plain. A pontoon bridge across the Demerara River opened in 1978; it is the only bridge to link major segments of the coastal plain. Bauxite is loaded into oceangoing ships at Linden and manganese ore at Port Kaituma, but otherwise the country’s external trade passes through Georgetown, which maintains connections with the West Indies, Suriname, French Guiana, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.
Government
It is a multiparty republic with one legislative house; its head of state and government is the president.
Originally a Dutch colony in the 17th century, by 1815 Guyana had become a British possession. The abolition of slavery led to black settlement of urban areas and the importation of indentured servants from India to work the sugar plantations. This ethnocultural divide has persisted and has led to turbulent politics. Guyana achieved independence from the UK in 1966, and since then it has been ruled mostly by socialist-oriented governments. In 1992, Cheddi JAGAN was elected president in what is considered the country's first free and fair election since independence. After his death five years later, his wife, Janet JAGAN, became president but resigned in 1999 due to poor health. Her successor, Bharrat Jagdeo, was reelected in 2001 and again in 2006. (Source: Encyclopedia Britannica)
Guyana became an independent member of the Commonwealth in 1966 and in 1970 became a cooperative republic, involving citizens’ organizations in government. Under the constitution of Oct. 6, 1980, executive power is vested in the president, who leads the majority party in the unicameral National Assembly and holds office for the assembly’s duration. The president appoints the Cabinet, which is responsible to the National Assembly. The minority members of the assembly elect an opposition leader. The assembly is elected by universal adult suffrage for a term of five years. The right to vote belongs to all Guyanese citizens 18 years of age or older. Voting is carried out by secret ballot under a system of proportional representation. Votes are cast for lists of candidates compiled by the political parties, and seats are allocated proportionally among the lists.
Since independence in 1966, Guyana has been ruled by one party, the People’s National Congress. Initially identified with the urban black populace, the PNC essentially established a one-party state under the direction of its first leader, Forbes Burnham. The PNC won power in an election marked by numerous reports of irregularities, many of which were related to the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), a military unit established in 1965 with strong ties to the PNC. Both the GDF and the police force are overwhelmingly black. The People’s Progressive Party (PPP), the PNC’s official opposition, is the traditional party of the rural East Indians; smaller parties include the Working People’s Alliance (WPA), a newer party founded by the historian Walter Rodney and headed by black labour leaders and intelligentsia allied against alleged PNC corruption. Local government is administered principally through the Regional Democratic Councils, each led by a chairman; they are elected for terms of up to five years and four months in each of the country’s 10 regions.
Guyana has two legal traditions, the British common law and the Roman-Dutch code, the latter now largely relegated to matters of land tenure. The constitution is the supreme law of the land. The court structure consists of magistrate courts for civil claims of small monetary value and minor offenses, the High Court, with original and appellate jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters, and the Court of Appeal, with appellate authority in criminal cases. The Court of Appeal and the High Court together constitute the Supreme Court.
Education
Education is free and compulsory. Primary and secondary instruction are separate, although the lack of facilities makes it necessary to hold some secondary classes in primary schools. In 1976 the government assumed full responsibility for education from nursery school to university. Government authority was extended over all church and private primary schools. Teachers are expected to teach loyalty to both the PNC and socialist objectives. The principal university is the University of Guyana, founded in 1963 and subsequently housed at Turkeyen, in the eastern part of Greater Georgetown. The school has also become politicized, attendance there being contingent upon prospective students completing a year of national service, usually at camps in Guyana’s interior. Thus many Guyanese seek education and training abroad. There are also a number of other colleges, including technical and teacher-training schools.
Health and welfare
Health standards declined after independence. Many doctors and other trained personnel have emigrated, and economic austerity programs have reduced supplies of medicine and soap. Food shortages have created widespread malnutrition, especially in Georgetown. Diseases formerly under control, notably beriberi and malaria, had reappeared by the early 1980s, and sanitation problems have also increased. Under colonial rule public health was centred around government and plantation health clinics. After independence a universal health care system was instituted, and most hospital facilities came under government control. Health problems arise particularly along the easily flooded coast, where the many ditches and ponds provide ideal environments for the spread of disease. A minimal government pension plan for the sick and aged has continued beyond independence, its effectiveness reduced by inflation. Government housing projects, confined mainly to the Georgetown area, have not produced expected results.
The national social structure was inherited from the period of British colonial rule, under which the majority of East Indian and Afro-Guyanese labourers were directed by white planters and government officials. A poorly defined local middle class composed of teachers, professionals, and civil servants, and including a disproportionate number of Chinese and Portuguese, emerged during colonialism. Since independence the PNC political elite has replaced the white plantocracy at the apex of Guyana’s social order. The Amerindians remain apart from the country’s social structure as they did under the British.
(Source: Encyclopedia Britannica)
Disasters resulting from natural phenomena from 1988 - 2006
Overview
- No of events: 7
- No of people killed: 44
- Average killed per year: 2
- No of people affected: 954,974
- Average affected per year: 50,262
- Ecomomic Damage (US$ X 1,000): 663,100
- Ecomomic Damage per year (US$ X 1,000): 34,900
(Source: PreventionWeb: Guyana - Disaster Statistics
Administrative Divisions
10 Regions:
1. Barima-Waini,
2. Cuyuni-Mazaruni,
3. Demerara-Mahaica,
4. East Berbice-Corentyne,
5. Essequibo Islands-West Demerara,
6. Mahaica-Berbice,
7. Pomeroon-Supenaam,
8. Potaro-Siparuni,
9. Upper Demerara-Berbice,
10. Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo.
Boundary Disputes
Guyana was in a border dispute with both Suriname, which claimed the land east of the Corentyne River in southeastern Guyana, and Venezuela which claims the land west of the Essequibo River as part of Guayana Esequiba. The dispute with Suriname was arbitrated by the United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea and a ruling in favor of Guyana was announced in September, 2007.
When the British surveyed British Guiana in 1840, they included the entire Cuyuni River basin within the colony. Venezuela did not agree with this as it claimed all lands west of the Essequibo River. In 1898, at Venezuela's request, an international arbitration tribunal was convened and in 1899 they issued an award giving about 94% percent of the disputed territory to British Guiana. Venezuela and Great Britain accepted the award by treaty in 1905. In 1962, Venezuela renewed its 19th century claim, alleging that the arbitration award was invalid. The British and the Guyanese rejected this renewed claim, and efforts by all the parties to resolve the matter on the eve of Guyana's independence in 1966 failed. On 17 February 1966, in Geneva, the parties agreed in principle to settle the dispute peacefully, but no other agreement was reached. Later in 1966, Venezuela occupied and annexed the Guyanese half of Ankoko Island in the Cuyuni River. On 18 June 1970, at the Port of Spain meetings of the Caribbean nations, Venezuela and Guyana signed a protocol placing a moratorium on discussions on the border issue for a period of twelve years. The moratorium expired and was not renewed. The only current agreement recognized by both sides is a semi-official agreement between the Guyanese Defense Force and the Venezuelan Army signed in 1990. Venezuelan maps after 1962 started to show the territory as disputed or labeled it Zona en Reclamación (the "zone in process of reclamation"). After 1982, Venezuelan maps started to show Guayana Esequiba as an integral part of Venezuela without any indication that it was under Guyanese administration and in dispute.
Public Health
Service Delivery
The delivery of health services is provided at five different levels in the public sector:
• Level I: Local Health Posts (166 in total) that provide preventive and simple curative care for common diseases and attempt to promote proper health practices. Community health workers staff them.
• Level II: Health Centers (109 in total) that provide preventive and rehabilitative care and promotion activities. These are ideally staffed with a medical extension worker or public health nurse, along with a nursing assistant, a dental nurse and a midwife.
• Level III: Nineteen District Hospitals (with 473 beds) that provide basic in-patient and outpatient care (although more the latter than the former) and selected diagnostic services. They are also meant to be equipped to provide simple radiological and laboratory services, and to be capable of gynecology, providing preventive and curative dental care. They are designed to serve geographical areas with populations of 10,000 or more.
• Level IV: Four Regional Hospitals (with 620 beds) that provide emergency services, routine surgery and obstetrical and gynecological care, dental services, diagnostic services and specialist services in general medicine and pediatrics. They are designed to include the necessary support for this level of medical service in terms of laboratory and X-ray facilities, pharmacies and dietetic expertise. These hospitals are located in Regions 2, 3, 6 and 10.
• Level V: The National Referral Hospital (937 beds) in Georgetown that provides a wider range of diagnostic and specialist services, on both an in-patient and out-patient basis; the Psychiatric Hospital in Canje; and the Geriatric Hospital in Georgetown. There is also one children’s rehabilitation center.
This system is structured so that its proper functioning depends intimately on a process of referrals. Except for serious emergencies, patients are to be seen first at the lower levels, and those with problems that cannot be treated at those levels are referred to higher levels in the system. However, in practice, many patients by-pass the lower levels.
The health sector is currently unable to offer certain sophisticated tertiary services and specialized medical services, the technology for which is unfordable in Guyana, or for which the required medical specialists simply do not exist. Even with substantial improvements in the health sector, the need for overseas treatment for some services might remain. The Ministry of Health provides financial assistance to patients requiring such treatment, priority being given to children whose condition can be rehabilitated with significant improvements to their quality of life. In addition to the facilities mentioned above, there are 10 hospitals belonging to the private sector and to public corporations, plus diagnostic facilities, clinics and dispensaries in those sectors. These ten hospitals together, provide for 548 beds. Eighteen clinics and dispensaries are owned by GUYSUCO.
The Ministry of Health and Labour is responsible for the funding of the National Referral Hospital in Georgetown, which has recently been made a public corporation managed by an independent Board. Region 6 is responsible for the management of the National Psychiatric Hospital. The Geriatric Hospital, previously administered by the Ministry of Labour, became the responsibility of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in December 1997.
Health conditions
One of the most unfortunate consequences of Guyana's economic decline in the 1970s and 1980s because of the rule of the PNC (People's National Congress) was that it led to very poor health conditions for a large part of the population. Basic health services in the interior are primitive to non-existent and some procedures are not available at all. The U.S. State Department Consular Information Sheet warns "Medical care is available for minor medical conditions. Emergency care and hospitalization for major medical illnesses or surgery is limited, because of a lack of appropriately trained specialists, below standard in-hospital care, and poor sanitation. Ambulance service is substandard and may not routinely be available for emergencies."
The picture in regard to morbidity patterns differs. The ten leading causes of morbidity for all age groups are, in decreasing order: malaria; acute respiratory infections; symptoms, signs and ill defined or unknown conditions; hypertension; accident and injuries; acute diarrheal disease; diabetes mellitus; worm infestation; rheumatic arthritis; and mental and nervous disorders.
This morbidity profile indicates that it can be improved substantially through enhanced preventive health care, better education on health issues, more widespread access to potable water and sanitation services, and increased access to basic health care of good quality. Guyana also suffers from the highest suicide rate of any South America country. The Guyana Health Minister, Leslie Ramsammy, estimates that at least 200 people commit suicide each year in Guyana, or 27.2 people for each 100,000 people each year.
Sources: CIA Factbook/Wikipedia/GINA/Reliefweb
Urban indicators
| Indicator | 2030 |
| Total population (thousands) | 660.1 |
| Population in urban (thousands) | 244.1 |
| Population in slums (thousands) | N/A |
| Population in urban areas (% of total population) | 37 |
| Population in slums (% of urban population) | N/A |
| Annual urban population growth rate (%) | N/A |
| Annual slum population growth rate (%) | N/A |
| Population with access to improved sanitation (% of urban population) | N/A |
| Population with access to improved water (% of urban population) | N/A |
| Population with sufficient living area (% of urban population) | N/A |
| Population with durable structures (% of urban population) | N/A |
| Population in rural (thousands) | 416 |
- Source: UN-Habitat - The data presented here is extracted from UN-HABITAT's Global Urban Indicators database.
- The data is drawn from different sources and based on 2030 estimates.
Climate change
- Guyana 's First National Communication on Climate Change to the UNFCC (May 2002) / National Action Plan Mitigation
Progress towards the implementation of the HFA
HFA P1 - Institutional and legal framework
HFA P2 - Risk identification and EWS:
HFA P3 - Knowledge and education:
HFA P4 - Risk applications:
HFA P5 - Preparedness and response:
Others Documents
Turkeyen Declaration (Spanish)
- XIX Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Permanent Mechanism of Consultation and Policy Concertation - Rio Group - held in Turkeyen, Guyana on 2-3 March, 2007
Guyana: Poverty reduction strategy paper - PRSP (2006)
Country Programm Document for Guyana (2006/2010)October 2005
Web Links
PreventionWeb: Guyana - Disaster Statistics
Guyana Coordination Profile; United Nations Development Group (includes Common Country Assessment - CCA, United Nations Development Assistance Framework - UNDAF, MDG Reports, Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper - PRSP, UN Country Team, Resident Coordinator's Office and more)
Britannica Country Profile: Guyana
Guyana Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
