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 Guyana
has an area of 215,084 square kilometers, nearly the size
of Britain, but only about 2.5 percent (or 537,710
hectares) is cultivated. About 90 percent of the
population lives on the narrow coastal plain, either in
Georgetown, the capital, or in villages along the main
road running from Charity in the west to the Suriname
border. Most of the plain is below sea level. Large wooden
houses stand on stilts above ground level. A sea wall
keeps out the Atlantic and the fertile clay soil is
drained by a system of dykes; sluice gates, kokers are
opened to let out water at low tide. Separate irrigation
channels are used to bring water back to the fields in dry
weather. Most of the western third of the coastal plain is
un-drained and uninhabited.
Four
major rivers cross the coastal plain (from west to east)
the Essequibo, the Demerara, the Berbice, and the
Corentyne (which forms the frontier with Suriname). Only
the Demerara is crossed by bridges. Elsewhere ferries must
be used. At the mouth of the Essequibo River, 34
kilometers wide, are islands the size of Barbados. The
lower reaches of these rivers are navigable (120
kilometers up the Demerara to Linden and 72 kilometers up
the Essequibo to the mouth of the Cuyuni River); but
waterfalls and rapids prevent them being used by large
boats to reach the interior.
Inland
from the coastal plain most of the country is covered by
thick rain forest, although in the east there is a large
area of grassland. Towards the Venezuelan border the rain
forest rises in a series of steep escarpments, with
spectacular waterfalls, the highest and best known of
which are the Kaieteur Falls on the Potaro River. In the
southwest of the country is the Rupununi Savanna, an area
of open grassland more easily reached from Brazil than
from Georgetown.
The
area west of the Essequibo River, about 70 percent of the
national territory, is claimed by Venezuela. In the
southeast, the border with Suriname is in dispute, the
contentious issue being whether high or low water is the
boundary (in the area of the Koeroeni and New rivers).
Until
the 1920s there was little natural increase in population,
but the eradication of malaria and other diseases has
since led to a rapid growth in population, particularly
among the East Indians (Asian), who, according to most
estimates comprise about 50 percent of the population. The
1992 census showed the following ethnic distribution: East
Indian 48.3 percent; black 32.7 percent; mixed 12.2
percent; Amerindian 6.3 percent; white 0.3 percent;
Chinese 0.2 percent; other 0.02 percent. Descendants of
the original Amerindian inhabitants are divided into nine
ethnic groups, including the Akawaio, Makuxi and Pemon.
Some have lost their isolation and moved to the urban
areas, others keenly maintain aspects of their traditional
culture and identity.
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