New City Being Built In Venezuelan Wilderness

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30274, 29 October 1963, Page 20

New City Being Built In Venezuelan Wilderness

[By P. R. MORTIMER, a Reuter Correspondent]

ANA (Venezuela). A big new city is being carved out of the wilderness here. It is being started from scratch, as was Brasilia in Brazil, Chandigarh in India and CanibeiTa in Australia. But it differs from those three cities in a fundamental respect. They are capitals or administrative centres. Santo Toone de Guayana will be an industrial city—steed, heavy machinery, chemicals and ore processing. The project is a keystone of the Venezuelan Government’s massive effort to broaden the base of the country's economy which since the 1920’* had been founded on oil. It is hoped that the population will be 400,000 by 1975.

The autonomous Venezueland Government institution, Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana, working with urban and social planners from Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is focusing the city on the magnificent Caroni Falls. These lie just short of

where the Caroni river ends its long journey from Brazil and spills into the mighty Orinoco. El Dorado The forerunner of Santo Tome was San Felix, a sleepy Spanish colonial river port not much changed since Sir Walter Raleigh passed this way in search of El Dorado. He found potatoes instead, and took them back to Ireland. The nearest El Dorado today falls short of Raleigh's specifications. It is the name of the country's toughest, most remote prison colony, close to the jungles of British Guiana. Although gold and diamonds are not the chief crops, Santo Tome is already much closer to Raleigh’s idea of how lucrative El Dorado should be.

From Cerro Bolivar, the ‘‘iron mountain,’’ ore is sent 75 miles by rail and transhipped here to ocean-going vessels which travel 160 miles down the Orinoco's deep water channel to the sea. This ore is 60 per cent. pure. Pipelines will shortly bring gas and oil direct from the

oilfields of eastern Venezuela. Work has also commenced on damming the Caroni at Guri, about 70 mile* upstream from Santo Tome. This hydro-electric project is scheduled to have 1100,000 kilowatt installed capacity by 1975. Other mineral resources not yet fully proved include manganese, nickel and chrome. British Example The endless wilderness of the Guayana region and the tight green Arid* of England could scarcely be more different. But the urban planners here acknowledge a considerable debt to th* planners of the new town* around London.

Their successes as well as their mistake* have proved equally instructive to th* planner* of Santo Tam*. The planner* here have some factor* going for them that the English jtooners did not. For instance, th* northeast trade wind is so constant that ail heavy industry i* planned on the aouth-west side of th* town. Thia take* care of the smoke problem.