The Demerara River is a
river in eastern
Guyana
Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...
that rises in the central
rainforest
Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...
s of the country and flows to the north for 346 kilometres until it reaches the
Atlantic Ocean.
Georgetown, Guyana's largest seaport and capital, is situated on the east bank of the river's
mouth
In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...
. The river divides
Essequibo Islands-West Demerara (Region 3) on the west bank from
Demerara-Mahaica (Region 4) to the east.
The name "Demerara" comes from a variant of the
Arawak word "Immenary" or "Dumaruni" which means "river of the
letter wood" (wood of ''
Brosimum guianense'' tree).
Features
Demerara's
estuary is narrow and the flowrate is rapid. This scouring action maintains a 5-to-6-metre-deep
direct channel to the ocean. The river's deep brown color is primarily the result of the massive quantities of silt carried from upriver by the powerful currents. So powerful are these currents, that the ocean retains the Demerara's brown color for a considerable distance out to sea.
Tributaries of the Demerara River include the Haiama River, Kuruabaru River, Haiakwa Creek and
Haianari Creek.
The islands
Inver,
Borsselen, and
Biesen are found from the mouth. Borsselen was once the location of the Dutch capital of
Demerara.
Transportation and use
The Demerara's width and depth allow oceangoing vessels up to 5,000 t to navigate up to
Linden (105 km from the mouth), while smaller vessels may reach up to Malali (245 km from the mouth). Beyond Malali, numerous
rapid
Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence.
Rapids are hydrological features between a ''run'' (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a ''cascade''. ...
s make further upstream travel impossible.
A floating bridge, the
Demerara Harbour Bridge, crosses the river south of Georgetown from
Peter's Hall, East Bank Demerara to Schoon Ord, West Bank Demerara.
[The Demerara Harbour Bridge.](_blank)
overtown.org.uk Retrieved 4 March 2019.
A
Dutch colony of the same name was situated along the river's banks. The colony founded the
sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...
industry that continues to thrive today.
Bauxite is also mined around the Demerara, and Linden is a major
export centre.
References
{{Authority control
Rivers of Guyana