HGP NIGHTLY NEWS – When the MV Barima went down on July 18, Guyana’s main maritime rescue coordination centre still could not receive satellite distress alerts directly and had to depend on the Cheddi Jagan International Airport control tower to relay critical emergency information.
That operational limitation was revealed by MARAD Emergency Operations Coordinator Captain John Flores during testimony before the Commission of Inquiry on Thursday.
Flores told the Commission that MARAD is now preparing to commission satellite receivers and high-frequency radio equipment at its Rescue Coordination Centre.
Once operational, the equipment is expected to allow maritime authorities to receive satellite-generated distress alerts directly rather than waiting for those signals to be relayed through the airport.
The upgrade, however, was already in the works before the Barima disaster.
According to Flores, the project followed an audit and the contract was signed in March 2025, more than a year before the July 2026 tragedy.
The equipment has since arrived, but familiarisation and training are still required before it can be commissioned.
Flores said MARAD expects that process to be completed by the end of next week.
His testimony comes after the Commission heard extensively about how distress information moved between different agencies during the crucial opening hours of the Barima emergency.
Previous evidence showed satellite distress information being received by aviation authorities before being passed to maritime responders as efforts intensified to determine which vessel was in trouble and where it was located.
Flores also acknowledged that Guyana’s disaster-response capacity was stretched during the operation.
And the Commission heard of another significant limitation in the country’s maritime emergency preparations.
Flores testified that individual Transport and Harbours Department ferries did not have emergency response plans developed specifically for each vessel.
The emergency response plan associated with the Barima recorded a capacity of 125 persons, while authorities have estimated that approximately 179 people were actually aboard when the vessel sank.
The evidence is now placing greater scrutiny on the communication and emergency systems that existed before the disaster and the upgrades that had been planned, but were not yet operational when the Barima went down.
