By NAN Staff Writer, NewsAmericas Now
News Americas, GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Tues. July 21, 2026: As search teams continue looking for dozens still missing after the MV Barima capsized off Guyana’s coast on July 20th, the disaster is renewing attention on a challenge Guyana’s ferry system has faced for more than 15 years: an aging fleet that has been repeatedly patched rather than replaced.
The Guyana government confirmed Monday that the confirmed death toll has risen to 27 as 83 persons remain unaccounted for. The identification process, involving relatives, is being carried out at Suddie Hospital.
The Maritime Rescue Coordination Center deployed 13 assets from first light Monday and declared that 69 people, including passengers and crew members, have been rescued. The government says it remains fully committed to the search and continues deploying all available resources to account for everyone who was aboard. The government also said the ferry’s location was identified not by its own military or divers, but at 13:31 hrs today by a fisherman – Haresh Singh, who had earlier assisted in rescue efforts yesterday.
International assistance has since joined the operation. President Irfaan Ali announced Monday that a 15-member team from the French Armed Forces in French Guiana, including 12 specialist divers, two medics and a mechanic, had arrived in Guyana to help with the search, rescue and recovery effort. The team is led by Lieutenant Commander Alexis Touboul. The ferry capsized roughly seven miles offshore near the mouth of the Pomeroon River. As of the latest count, 67 people have been rescued and 10 confirmed dead, with the Guyana Defense Force, Coast Guard, private vessels and local fisherfolk continuing to scour the area, including the privately owned vessel Gilligan Island.
Port Kaituma residents began publicly calling for a newer, faster vessel as early as 2010, citing disruptions that caused losses for passengers and local businesses. By 2015, government officials were openly acknowledging that the MV Barima and other ferries serving the North-West District were aging and needed urgent attention. Then-Cabinet Secretary Joseph Harmon, under the David Granger government, said at the time that the old vessels should not remain in service much longer, citing unreliable transportation and its effect on residents, businesses and the movement of goods from Region One. The administration announced plans that year to lease a ferry and acquire two new vessels for the route.
Those plans didn’t result in the MV Barima’s retirement. Instead, in 2017, the government spent 150.6 million Guyanese dollars rehabilitating the vessel – work on its hull, propellers and rudders, two new engines, and improvements to passenger accommodation. The 87-year-old ship, built in Scotland in 1939, remained in active service for nearly another decade until it capsized on July 19 while traveling from Georgetown to Port Kaituma with some 133 people aboard, along with cargo.
Minister pushes back on “unseaworthy” claims
Guyana’s Minister of Public Works, Bishop Juan Edghill, dismissed claims circulating publicly that the MV Barima was unseaworthy, telling reporters at a Sunday evening, July 20th press briefing that the vessel was operating within its routine maintenance schedule and was due for planned dry-docking later this year. Edghill said the ferry was last dry-docked in 2024 and was scheduled for its next dry-docking in the latter half of 2026, alongside the MV Malali and MB Hercules. He said public reports suggesting the vessel had been declared unfit for service were inaccurate.
A fleet of similar age
The MV Barima was far from the only aging vessel in Guyana’s Transport and Harbours Department fleet.
The MV Malali, built in 1962, and the MV Makouria, built in 1959, remain technically active but are prone to frequent mechanical breakdowns and parts shortages. The Malali primarily serves the Parika-to-Bartica route, while the Makouria now operates mainly as an infrequent backup.
The MV Kanawaima, which has handled the Guyana-Suriname crossing since 1998, is reportedly plagued by technical issues serious enough that the terminal has had to rent or swap in alternative tugs and barges to keep the route running.
The government has made some investments in modernizing parts of the fleet in recent years, commissioning the MV Ma Lisha in 2023 and the MV Konawaruk 1899 in December 2025, along with newer vessels serving the busier Essequibo routes. But those additions have not reached every route, and the money committed to the Barima itself went toward continued rehabilitation rather than replacement.
In March 2026, the Ministry of Public Works invited bids for a $440 million rehabilitation initiative covering three vessels – the MV Ma Lisha, the MV Barima and the MB Hercules – with $124.5 million specifically earmarked for further work on the Barima, according to a Department of Public Information notice at the time. Guyana’s 2025 budget had allocated 9.9 billion Guyanese dollars for river transportation overall, rising to 11.2 billion dollars for 2026, but no purpose-built vessel intended to retire the Barima outright was funded in that plan.
In February 2025, President Irfaan Ali said the government was considering acquiring another ferry for the North-West District given rising travel demand, and later that year the administration acquired the Kalliopi N, a vessel that can carry 284 passengers and 51 vehicles, for the Georgetown-to-Region One route. It is unclear from public records whether that vessel had entered service, or was intended to replace the Barima specifically, at the time of Saturday’s disaster.
A pattern beyond one ship
Even as search and rescue operations continue, the broader fleet shows signs of ongoing strain. The Ministry of Public Works temporarily withdrew the MV Sabanto, one of two primary vessels on the heavily used Parika-to-Supenaam route, for urgent repairs this month. That leaves the MV Kanawan and the newly commissioned MV Konawaruk 1899 to carry the load on one of the country’s busiest crossings.
For the outlying Indigenous and rural communities in Regions One, Two and beyond that depend on these aging vessels for both transportation and the movement of cargo and produce, Saturday’s disaster raises a question that predates this weekend by well over a decade: how long a country can keep patching an aging fleet before the patches run out.
NewsAmericasNow will continue following the investigation into the MV Barima disaster and the state of Guyana’s ferry fleet.