Close to 100 including women and children left stranded on MV Kanawan

A file photo of the MV Kanawan in the Essequibo River 

Dozens of passengers including women and children had to be transferred from the MV Kawana Ferry into speed boats Saturday afternoon in order to complete their journey to Supenaam in Region 2. The ferry is operated by the Transport and Harbours Department.

The passengers earlier left the Parika Ferry Stelling on-board the MV Kanwan when it developed mechanical problems in the middle of the Essequibo River causing them to be stranded and left adrift for hours before a decision was taken to have them removed from the vessel.

“Leroy could you imagine, since 06:00 this morning we are stuck on the Essequibo River between Hogg Island and Wakenaam Island on the Kanawan Ferry. We are now drifting and I haven’t heard from anyone from T&HD. This is just ridiculous” an angry passenger related via text to the editor of this publication at 14:06 on Saturday.

General Manager of the Transport and Harbours Department Marclene Merchant when contacted Sunday morning, confirmed that there was indeed an issue on-board where a generator began developing mechanical problems while the vessel was en-route to the Supenaam Stelling in Essequibo.

“The lone generator that was working is the one that just shut down and so the engineers were trying to get it started and they were not getting it to start. They discovered that it was the raw water pump and they took off one from the other boat and they managed to get it started but by the time they go around the Wakenaam turn it shut down,” Merchant told BIG Smith News Watch The General Manager explained that the generators on the vessel were recently serviced and given the development on Saturday, the engineers have indicated that they would be doing some assessments to see if the problem has to do with something else. She explained that she was assured that the vessel does not require any new generators.

“We ended up taking all the passengers off and it took some time before we did that because remember we are not supposed to be doing that. At the same time, we were hoping to get the vessel started. We took off about ninety persons including women and children and place them onto speed boats. MARAD (Maritime Administration Department) don’t like us doing that unless it’s a rescue mission” the General Manager explained Sunday morning.

But for the passengers who were hoping to get into Essequibo to transact business and leave with the other ferry that was scheduled to leave that port later in the day, the experience was not a very pleasant one.

“T&HD sent speedboats to take us to Supenaam, when we reached there we went to the T&HD wharf to find out if the other ferry Sabanto was leaving at it’s scheduled time of 16:00 hrs but lo and behold we were told that it was leaving immediately. I asked the stelling supervisor to ask the captain to wait five minutes for us because we haven’t eaten anything for the day due to the abandoned ferry had nothing. You know the captain promptly lifted his door and left. That is what commuters in this God-forsaken country got to go through” One of the messages received by BIG Smith News stated.

On Sunday the Transport and Harbours Department Head apologized for the inconvenience the commuters endured and indicated that the MV Kanawan was able to leave Port Supenaam at 05:00hrs on Sunday morning and got to Parika safely.