Cross-border travel and trade between the South American nations of Suriname and Guyana has been plunged into further disruption, as the operator of the vital inter-country ferry service has suspended operations of its flagship vessel for unscheduled planned maintenance amid already massive queues on both sides of the border.
Long lines of passenger and commercial vehicles have been building up since Friday at crossing points in Guyana and at South Drain on the Surinamese side of the Corantijn River, the natural border that separates the two countries. The persistent congestion had already caused significant headaches for travelers and cargo transporters, before Canawaima Ferry Service Inc. announced Saturday that its M.V. Canawaima ferry will be temporarily pulled out of service starting this weekend to accommodate planned repair and maintenance work.
The M.V. Canawaima serves as the primary infrastructure connecting the two countries for both passenger movement and cross-border goods trade, making its temporary outage a major blow to already strained travel flows. As of the operator’s announcement, no timeline has been provided for how long the maintenance work will take, or when the vessel will return to active service to clear the growing backlog of waiting vehicles.
In its public statement, the ferry operator only confirmed that the M.V. Canawaima would halt all crossings effective immediately to carry out the pre-planned work. “As soon as regular ferry services are ready to resume, we will issue an update through all of our official communication channels,” the company said in the statement.
The operator has urged all passengers, cargo transporters and other regular users of the cross-border link to plan their travel around the temporary suspension and continue monitoring official updates from the company for new information on service resumption.
The outage announcement leaves thousands of waiting travelers and transporters with no clarity on when the existing massive traffic backlog will be cleared. It also remains unclear what alternative arrangements or support are being put in place for the hundreds of people already stuck in multi-day queues waiting to make the crossing.