It was supposed to be a routine July 18 weekend sailing from Guyana’s capital of Georgetown to a jungle community in the northwest near Venezuela, but just about seven hours after departing, the MV Barima sank in the Atlantic, killing dozens aboard in the Caribbean Community nation’s worst maritime disaster on record.
The sinking of the Irish-built, 87-year-old government ferry has triggered widespread calls for a massive overhaul of maritime rules and regulations, including oversight to prevent massive overcrowding of passengers and cargo overloading of the vessels, actions that are known to be linked to corruption and collusion of some staffers.
Search and recovery teams have so far recovered the bodies of just under 80 of the 179 people who were aboard the rickety vessel, while 76 have been rescued. Authorities said they have all but abandoned any hopes of finding any other survivors and have turned their focus to righting the ship in a bid to recover a few dozen more bodies that might still be pinned down in the vessel.
As salvage efforts continue, the administration of President Irfaan Ali has come under withering criticism for the fact that authorities had allegedly been nursing the Barima along until construction of a new pier at Port Kaituma had been completed to accommodate a modern vessel that needed specialized berthing facilities different from those still being used by the Barima.
That decision to still use the Barima until the pier construction had been completed appears to have caused the nation its worst maritime disaster on record. Many of the survivors have blamed a litany of woes for its sinking, including engine trouble, the fact that the vessel had been taking in water, and emerging evidence about overloading and overcrowding.
To support passenger claims about staff collusion regarding passenger loading, Public Works Minister Juan Edghill has publicly admitted that a few dozen of the passengers had been sailing on the vessel but their names were missing from the official manifest. He and others pointed to possible staff collusion and corruption or professional recalcitrance for their absence from the manifest.
As relatives bury the dead, mostly in jungle communities near Venezuela, the administration has turned to a slew of international marine experts to help them investigate the tragedy. Authorities selected former Belizean attorney general Phillip Godfrey Smith to chair the five-person team that will investigate all aspects of the tragedy.
In a national address on Sunday, Ali said the team has been given widespread powers to determine how it works and its methods of operation, and is expected to operate independently. He said legal instruments to establish the commission are being finalized and work can begin thereafter.
He said the team will be asked to scrutinize the “passenger management, including embarkation, manifest preparation, the possible overcrowding of the vessel, the storage of cargo, the availability and use of life-saving equipment, and adherence to passenger safety requirements.”
Dozens of those rescued after up to 11 hours, clinging to any floating item, had claimed that the vessel had been overcrowded with passengers and overloaded with cargo, including vehicles and large pallets. They also said the Barima had been taking on water, but crew members had dismissed this as “normal.”
The president said his administration also wants the commissioners to determine whether there were “any acts of negligence, misconduct, dereliction of duty, and other failures by any individual, entity, or institution [that] contributed to or cause[d] the disaster, including neglect of its condition, maintenance history, sea tides, functioning navigation and communication equipment, and other operational factors.”
Ali said authorities hope the commission would recommend institutional and operational reforms, as well as any other measures necessary to strengthen maritime safety, “improve emergency preparedness and response, and reduce the likelihood of similar tragedies occurring in the future.”
From all appearances, local divers and a team from nearby French Guiana are preparing to head home, citing difficulty in trying to raise the vessel, in part because they have encountered dozens of hammocks strung up in the open area and heavy-duty cargo making access for divers near-impossible.
“We arrived on Monday, and since Tuesday we have committed about 15 dives on the wreck,” the French team said in a statement. “It is totally dark there. There are very, very hard environmental conditions, especially because of the tide and the current on the wreck [so] it is very difficult for us to navigate through the wreck. We have to feel the wreck. It’s like we are blind. It is too dangerous for us to enter into the wreck because of the many ropes and the hammocks. [It’s] very difficult to see where we are going,” he said, hinting that their role is coming to a close.
