Sea and River Defence Act 2024 comes into force in Guyana

Guyana’s Sea and River Defence Act 2024 is now in force. Order No. 188 of 2026, formally cited as the Sea and River Defence Act 2024 (Commencement) Order 2026, appoints 7 October 2026 as the day the Act comes into operation, and was published in the Legal Supplement of the Official Gazette of Guyana of Saturday 17 October 2026.

What the order does

The instrument is short and purely operative. It contains two numbered provisions and no schedule, no transitional clause and no savings.

• Citation: the order may be cited as the Sea and River Defence Act 2024 (Commencement) Order 2026.
• Commencement: the Minister appoints the 7th day of October, 2026 as the date on which the Act shall come into operation.
• Parent statute: the Sea and River Defence Act 2024, identified in the order as Act No. 9 of 2024.
• Enabling provision: section 2 of that Act, under which the order is made.

The effect is that the Act did not commence on its own terms on assent or publication. Its entry into force depended on a ministerial appointment of a date, and that date has now been fixed and gazetted.

The minister and the power invoked

The order opens with the standard formula recording that it is made “in exercise of the powers conferred upon me by section 2 of the Sea and River Defence Act 2024”. It is signed by Bishop A. Edghill, MP, Minister of Public Works, and is dated the 7th day of October, 2026 — the same day fixed for commencement.

The choice of issuing authority places responsibility for activating the sea and river defence regime squarely with the Ministry of Public Works, the ministry that carries the portfolio for the country’s coastal and riverine defences. The gazette text records the ministerial signature and portfolio but does not reproduce the Act itself, so the substantive duties, powers and offences created by the 2024 statute are not set out in this issue.

Publication and timing

The order appears in the Legal Supplement of the Official Gazette of Guyana, No. 399 of 2026, dated Saturday 17 October 2026, at page 1057, under the heading “B. Subsidiary Legislation”. The same supplement carries a notification under the Public Holidays Act (Cap 19:07) declaring Sunday 8 November 2026, and the following Monday 9 November 2026, public holidays for Deepavali.

Two dates therefore sit side by side in the record:

• 7 October 2026 — the date the Act comes into operation, and the date the order was made.
• 17 October 2026 — the date the order was published in the Official Gazette of Guyana.

The ten-day interval means the Act was already operating before the instrument that activated it reached the gazette. The gazette is printed and published by Guyana National Printers Limited, 1 Public Road, La Penitence, Greater Georgetown, every Saturday and on extraordinary days directed by the Government.

What readers should watch

The commencement order is the switch, not the machinery. Everything the Sea and River Defence Act 2024 provides for — the powers of the ministry over sea and river defences, the obligations falling on those who own or occupy land abutting defences, and any regime for contractors engaged on defence works — now has legal effect from 7 October 2026, but the text of those provisions must be read in the Act itself, Act No. 9 of 2024, not in this order.

For coastal and riverine communities, for contractors working on embankments, kokers and sluices, and for the Ministry of Public Works, the practical consequence is that the 2024 statute is no longer a dormant text. Any decision, notice or enforcement action taken under it after 7 October 2026 rests on a commencement date that is now a matter of public record in the Official Gazette of Guyana.

Source: Official Gazette of Guyana, No. 399 of 2026, 17 October 2026, Legal Supplement B, p. 1057 (official reference: Order No. 188 of 2026).