LAST week the Pepperpot Magazine visited the riverine community of Mole Island and Bonasika Creek, a tributary of the Essequibo River located in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara).

Bonasika Creek is divided into two sections, Lower and Upper, and it is a branch in the Essequibo River which has 365 islands, some uninhabited, with the largest being Hogg Island.

The creek is a cold blackwater creek running along both banks where there are dwelling houses occupied by residents, some of whom have lived all their lives in that riverine community.

The main economic activities of the people include farming and fishing.

Lower and Upper Bonasika Creek have two multi-grade schools housing both nursery and primary and two health centres with a police outpost.

In Upper Bonasika Creek is the 10-door koker and the major attraction is the five-door koker and savannah area used for sightseeing, picnics and fishing.

The population of Bonasika is about 2000, which consists of Indo, Afro and Amerindians whose only source of income is farming.

All the lands in this riverine community are privately owned and are utilised for vine crops, citrus, ground provisions and cash crops.

Bonasika is a major food-producing community and the produce would go to either Hubu Koker or to the Parika stelling to be sold to wholesalers and hucksters.

In Bonasika, there is a traditional lifestyle which is very basic and simple and it entails hard manual labour by the locals, most of whom till the land to earn.

Rain water is stored for consumption and cooking, while creek water is used for chores and bathing.

The people of Bonasika are very hospitable, friendly and welcoming and do not hesitate to invite you to their homes where freshly picked fruits, water coconuts, hot-off-the-fire foods and cold fruit juices await you with the creek in the background and it is a very calming and tranquil sight.

Being an isolated community where the only mode of transportation are boats, the youths do not have a lot of job opportunities and because of poverty, a lot of the secondary school students drop out of school.

Taking this into consideration, the locals report that there is an urgent need for a resource building or a multi-purpose centre for the community, where youths can benefit from skills training to become gainfully employed or self-employed.

Locals are willing to donate plots of land for the resource centre and a recreational park since there are no such facilities in that part of the country and they have to commute via boats to the closest central point in Parika.

Life is certainly not a ‘a walk in the park’ for these people, who often endure a lot of hardships on their farms, which are flooded, and invaded by wild animals, diseases and pests.

Bonasika Creek is a major agricultural community. The current administration recognised the need to boost and upgrade the drainage and irrigation network to ensure maximum food production and reduce flooding by digging canals on individual farms.

The Ministry of Agriculture, in partnership with the National Agricultural Research and Extension Institute (NAREI), is lending support to the farmers and they have been gifted fertilisers, drugs and seeds to re-plant since the last flood.

The locals have benefitted from the government’s cash grant of $100,000 per farmer and the $25,000 per household grant as well.

The people of Bonasika Creek are very thankful for the government’s intervention during their time of need and are willing to work with both the public and private sectors to maximise food security and production.

Bonasika Creek is a community that goes on for miles and it is about 10 to 15 miles from Parika, East Bank Essequibo.

Mole Island
It is located in the creek, a tributary opposite Lower Bonasika and it was said to be built during the Dutch rule as the place where the men stayed to construct a bond to erect a 10-door koker.

Back then, it had a dam connected to the High-Level Canal to Parika and the Dutch drove and walked until manual labour was used with shovels to dig a canal separating both sides of Bonasika from Mole Island.

Mole Island is a man-made island built by the Dutch and after that 10-door koker began to undermine rapidly and it was condemned and a five-door koker was constructed to reduce flooding and boost the drainage and irrigation network.

Today, the five-door koker is still in operation and it is the major attraction for both locals and visitors, who would fish and have a picnic at the area which is backgrounded by a vast savannah.