antabanta posted:Another question. A while ago I realized the word "lease" in lease water is spelled differently but I forgot what it is. Does anyone know the correct spelling (and maybe pronunciation) for the nasty black water in canals next to cane fields?
In 1945, the Sugar Workers Welfare Fund retained an Italian doctor who was also instrumental in dealing with malaria in Guyana, to do a report regarding the living conditions of Indian Indenture Labourers on the sugar estates. This report resulted in the logies being dismantled and new housing schemes being built at all the sugar estates, with better sanitation facilities.
I was sent a copy of this report by a student at the University of Guelph. It has photographs of many sugar estates in 1945, including an aerial photo of Albion estate, where I lived.
I made a poster size picture of this photograph and caption the different places, including the LEASE water trench.
Like you Anta, I was not sure whether it was called LEASE water trench, so I contacted an Albion historian friend older than me. She explained that since the waste water for the factory was less than good water, it was called LEAST water, 'less than good water'.
At Albion, we would often play on the LEAST water trench near the factory that was spongy, but if we stand long enough at spot we would sink. Later years, the least water was placed in regular drainage trenches, that became black and the fishes would surface and die.
I don't understand your entire question. ' Spelled differently, but I forgot what it is'.