Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill has confirmed that the MV Kanawan, which plies the Parika-Supenaam route, developed an issue whilst traversing the Essequibo River but noted that it was rectified within minutes, and that all passengers and crew are safe.
In a live broadcast on Wednesday, Edghill explained that the issue was encountered during the ship’s third trip for the day at around 12:10hrs.
“While the boat was en route to Supennaam, just off of the Wakenaam point, the boat, the MV Kanawan encountered a challenge with its steering. The captain and the crew, you know, rather than leaving the boat to drift with a defective steering, moved towards what we might want to call in colloquial or creole language, ‘bracing the bush’. During that time, the engineers onboard rectified the problem,” the minister explained.
“The engineers got the steering fixed and everything went back up and running at about 12:15hrs, a mere five minutes. The vessel, the MV Kanawan, arrived at the Supenaam sterling at 10 minutes after 1:00hrs,” he further noted.
Edghill lauded the captain for taking decisive action onboard, as he criticised the spread of misinformation about the incident on social media.
“Social media posts were made with a lot of negative comments and suggestions,” the minister lamented.
“On this the final day of the year 2025, I would have thought that the social media posts would have suggested that the [Transport and Harbours Department] crew, in the interest of safety, took all passengers on board to safety, got the problem fixed and in a very short time, five minutes, resumed the journey and we are all safe now at Supenaam and the very same boat is being loaded for its return trip to Parika. That was not the case,” he said.
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