Pat Ganase considers our well-watered island.
Water is life. It surrounds us. It refreshes and sustains us.
Having benefited from over two centuries of conservation – preserving the Main Ridge forest reserve – for the purpose of safeguarding rainfall, all citizens of Tobago must maintain and enhance the terrestrial features that secure and harvest water.
By protecting our rivers from degradation, pollution and deforestation, we ensure our constant and available water supply.
We all live in a watershed: uphill from the coast or downhill from the mountains: it’s time we learned our place in the watershed, between the sky and the sea.
The protected Main Ridge reserve extends about half the length of Tobago from the north east and occupies over 4,000 hectares; or 40 square kilometres in Tobago’s total terrestrial area of 300 square kilometres.
Mainly volcanic, the central spine of Tobago runs from Pigeon Peak rising 550 metres above Speyside in the north, to Mt Dillon above Castara at 433 metres. Further along the spine, Mason Hall is at 169 metres. The south west of the island is a coralline platform undulating under 100 metres.
The prominent features of the Main Ridge are the forests which – except for the effects of Hurricane Flora on September 30, 1963 – have remained intact. In 1963, the impact of Flora was to change the economy from agriculture – banana, coconut and cocoa – to tourism.
[caption id="attachment_977686" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The forest reclaims the bridge over the river that runs to Dead Bay, west of Bloody Bay. - Joanne Husain[/caption]
Over the 60 years, Tobago is still struggling to find its unique offering in this industry. We are distinctive among other Caribbean islands which have been offering sun sea and sand for almost a century.
Tobago’s embarrassment of riches have included coral reefs – Buccoo was designated a marine-protected area in 1973 – biodiversity of the rainforest; as well as white-sand beaches on its Caribbean coast, and the wild and windy shores on its Atlantic side.
Let us consider Tobago’s rivers and streams. On the Northside Road along the Caribbean coast, these are visible everywhere, tumbling off the cliffs of the Forest Reserve in cascades and falls, picturesque and refreshing in dry weather but turning quickly into cataracts and torrents after rainfall. You can hardly travel anywhere in Tobago without crossing a river. Along the Parlatuvier-Roxborough Road, you follow the courses of constantly flowing rivers which, even if you don’t see them, you hear gurgling in the trees.
If we were to do a tour of the rivers, a day or two after rainfall during the rainy season – May to December – would ensure that the water is clear. Go with a small group; safety is paramount. We could start at the lowlands where the Lambeau river descends from Patience Hill to the coconut-palm-fringed coast just outside Scarborough. From the high ground and ridge above Mason Hall, the Bacolet and Providence Rivers descend to Bacolet Bay. These river mouths are on t
