Guyana Where and What 2023-2024 for website_compressed

Guyana’s 10 Administrative Regions
Georgian styled 12-paned sashed
windows. It was bought from a private
owner, Booker Bros, by the British
Government in 1962. The building
served as the official Residence of
the British High Commissioners
until 1987. It was then purchased
by the Government of Guyana and
designated the Prime Minister’s
Residence. The current Prime Minister
occupies it.
The original roof has been retained. It
is of traditional Dutch design, and is
constructed of greenheart.
The Georgetown Seawall
Originally ‘earth dams’ were built to
keep the sea from the coastline and
these were replaced by concrete walls,
constructed between 1858 to 1882
by convict labour, with granite from
the Penal Settlement at Mazaruni
(Mazaruni Prison).
Much of the land here is below sea
level. The Kierfield and Sandy Point
Estates north of the wall are known
to have existed up until 1792, but had
been washed away by 1804. In 1903,
the Georgetown Seawall Bandstand
was built with funds subscribed by
the public as a memorial to Queen
Victoria. A shelter north of the
bandstand, called the Koh-i-noor
Shelter, was erected in 1903. (does not
exist today)
The seawall has not always been
able to protect Georgetown against
high tides; even after the wall was
completed, the city still had severe
floods. On the other hand, when
there is excessive rainfall, the water
has to be directed to the ocean. For
this reason, the seawall has so-called
‘kokers’ or sluices, which control the in
and outflow of water.
Currently, it is being debated
whether the capital should be moved
more inland as a safer place for its
inhabitants. It would mean reversing
the decision of the French in 1782
to move the capital from a location
upstream of the Demerara river closer
to the river’s mouth.
The Georgetown seawall has acquired
many more functions. Not only is it
used as an obvious spot for placing
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