THE United Nations (UN) has categorised the town of Linden as a prospective World Tourism Destination. The potential for tourism in Linden and Region 10 in general is not new to citizens and leaders in the community, though it could be said such took a back seat to the emphasis on the production of bauxite. A niche market in tourism today that Guyana can capitalise on is that of environmental promotion, with an eye towards preservation which can ennoble the community, equally as it spurs economic growth and address the problems within.
Linden has many attractions, such as the sandy hills, some of which resulted from the stripping of the overburden to get to the bauxite; the lake that was created as a consequence of bauxite mining; the so-called “blue lake” whose novelty lies in the absence of dark sediments on the lake bed which makes pronounced the reflection of the sky; springs; and remnants of bauxite mining on the Wismar and Mackenzie shores.
This year marks a century of mining bauxite in Guyana. Over the years, consequences positive and negative of the industry have made their mark on society, created a subculture within the Guyanese culture, which presents economic opportunities. The present degradation that comes with mining and the physical environmental practices of the time, the people who inhabited the land and their way of life, the natural habitat, flora and fauna, each segment of the community tells its own story and potential of developing an alternative industry.
Entering the town at night via the Linden/Soesdyke Highway on arriving at Amelia’s Ward the lights that demarcate the landscape from the Watooka community onto Christianburg which include the bauxite plant and central Mackenzie are a picturesque sight for visitors and residents.
The news of the UN confirms that Guyana, though a small nation, has equal attention of this world body, and moreso the country must move to recognise, appreciate and seek to pursue in a structured, realistic, and sustainable manner what has attracted global attention that we here might have taken for granted or ignored.
Linden’s history needs to be simply and succinctly captured in every sphere of activity. This includes attention paid to identifying all the bauxite mines, preserving the equipment and artifacts of the bauxite industry, such as the dragline and alumina plant. In developing the community as a tourist destination, it would require identification and auditing of the resources available, inclusive of the human component.
Priority has to be given, first and foremost, to the benefits that will be devolve to the community and its people. This requires a clear developmental policy that includes support from central government, not merely in direct financial input, but working with the people in realising the establishment of an Economic Plan agreed upon in August 2012 between central and regional governments.
Conversely, it behooves the people of Linden/Region 10, having attracted recognition at such level for an economic take-off in tourism, to not sit idly on their potential. The infrastructure that built Linden and the people who migrated to this community from all parts of Guyana brought with them their unique culture that fused into one culture, known as the “mining culture,” which pioneered and built a community from raw jungle to a town. This town, at one time, when bauxite was king, made significant contributions to the country’s development.
It may not be of widespread knowledge, which is an anomaly the education system must correct in the needed continuous process of forging a nation and recognising the contribution of each group to the nation’s development, but this community, in 1975, put Guyana on the world map. Bauxite workers of Linden assembled what in 1975 was then the world’s largest dragline. Hopefully this machine, which was last in the East Montgomery Mine, has been preserved, though it was said that the Privatisation Unit under Winston Brassington had intended to sell it as scrap metal. If the pioneers of yesteryear did it, there is no doubt such pioneering spirit resides in their descendants, who must take the potential for tourism and use the opportunity to move their community into a new phase of development.
