How Pomeroon-Supenaam’s Fisherfolk See Hope in the New Spill-Liability Law
On the Pomeroon River mouth, Captain Devi Lall ties her wooden seiner with a new sense of insurance. Parliament’s Oil Pollution Bill, passed on 17 May, forces operators to post financial guarantees and face licence suspension for any failure to cover clean-up costs.
Why Region 2 pushed hardest
This is coconut-and-catch country. A major spill would smother coast-lining mangroves, erode river banks, and wipe out daily fish hauls that supply Charity, Suddie and the Stabroek Market cold-storage chain. Regional Chairman Vilma De Souza spent months touring villages with a petition that finally landed on MPs’ desks.
What the law does
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Guarantee fund: Companies must lodge a bond sized to worst-case modelling.
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Routine audits: The Environmental Protection Agency now has subpoena power over safety data.
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Community trustees: Fisherfolk and Indigenous councils get standing to review emergency-response plans.
Critics & next steps
Exxon says the new escrow requirements duplicate its existing insurance layers, warning that delays could slow future investment. Activists reply that Pomeroon can’t be “another Niger Delta.” Law is ink on paper; the real fight is oversight capacity. Region 2 residents are already demanding that at least one of the EPA’s four new marine inspectors be stationed in Charity.
For now, Captain Lall starts her dawn run with lighter shoulders: “If they dirty our sea, they pay. Simple.”
