“Where Would I Go? There Was No Place with No Water”

Abstract

In the years immediately following a disastrous flood in 2005, the Guyanese state embarked on the multimillion-dollar enhancement of irrigation and drainage infrastructures. In August 2009 when I visited, earthmoving equipment dotted the coastline. These machines clawed through peatlands, locally known by the Creolese term pegasse, in an effort to reinforce a dam. Excavations were gaining momentum because of the state's plans for ventures in carbon markets and the World Bank's Global Environment Fa cil i ty grants. The enhancements were not the first in Guyana's history but were building on over two centuries of engineers transforming the country's Atlantic coastal region into a place suitable for sugar plantations. The state insisted that these enhancements were diff er ent because they would offer a first step toward adapting the nation to climate change. They are expected to help the country better withstand torrential rainstorms and make it easier to store and drain water during a flood. The extreme nature of today's climatic events has compelled the state's rethinking of coastal life in Guyana. This has led me to treat climate adaptation as requiring analy sis on its own terms, as a large-scale proj ect that alters understandings of settlement or introduction. "Where Would I Go?There Was No Place with No Water"