PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT EXPERIENCES IN THE COASTAL ZONE OF GUYANA

Planning and development experiences in Guyana's coastal zone have evolved from being individualistic, ill-conceived, uncoordinated and theoretically unsound to become more systematic, integrated and practical. After presenting an overview of the efforts made by the early European settlers to make the below sea level, and flood prone coastal zone habitable and cultivable, the paper analyses the planning experiences in the post-emancipation and post Second World War periods. Analysis of the Black Bush Polder project reveals both the positive and negative experiences of policy and planning strategies. Although planners have acquired the experiential knowledge that water control is necessary for coastal development and they have attempted to develop scientific plans, the paper, nevertheless, claims that coastal residents are becoming disenchanted with the escalating and aggravating water control problems. With the planning experience considered as being neither disappointing nor successful the paper concludes that 90% of the country's population will continue living in the coastal zone given rehabilitation and modernization of the water control infrastructure, and implementation of better policy, planning and management strategies.