SURINAME RIVER

river, central and eastern Suriname, rising in the highlands at the junction of the Wilhelmina and Eilerts de Haan ranges. It flows northeastward about 300 miles (480 km) to empty into the Atlantic Ocean just north of Paramaribo, the national capital. The river is obstructed by rapids in its upper course, where it is called the Gran River, and is dammed at Sintia, Adadien, and Awa. It is joined by the Pikien River at Djoemoe Asidonhopo, below which it is called the Suriname. The river was dammed at Afobaka to create the Professor Doctor Ingenieur W.J. van Blommestein Lake, Suriname's largest lake. Below Afobaka, the river flows through heavily populated and cultivated alluvial floodplains passing the cities of Brokopondo, Paramaribo, and Nieuw Amsterdam to empty into the Atlantic at its estuary, where it receives its only major tributary, the Commewijne. The economy Suriname has a higher standard of living than many Latin-American countries. During the 1980s the economy experienced a decline, resulting mainly from falling export prices for bauxite and from a reduction in development aid from the United States and The Netherlands. This decline was marked by inflation, a growing budget deficit, and unemployment. Government expenditures account for almost half of total consumption. The civil service employs about 45 percent of the work force. Agriculture, forestry, and fishing Less than 1 percent of Suriname's land is arable, and about half of this is cultivated. Most of the farmland is on the New Coastal Plain. In this region drainage is necessary most of the year, owing to a surplus of precipitation. During dry periods evaporation exceeds precipitation, and irrigation is necessary. More than half of the cultivated land in Suriname is planted with rice, the basic food staple. There are two rice harvests every year, the principal one in the spring and a second crop in the autumn. Some rice is exported, as are bananas, citrus fruits, coconuts, and palm oil. Sugar, coffee, and cocoa, formerly important export items, are produced mainly for domestic consumption. Suriname has great timber resources, but they have not been fully exploited. Plywood and timber are exported. There is a small fishing industry, centred in Paramaribo, that exports shrimp to North America. The land Relief and drainage The narrow coastal zone, some 226 miles (364 kilometres) long, consists of sandbanks and mudbanks deposited by the southern equatorial currents from the area surrounding the mouth of the Amazon River. South of the mudbanks begins the New Coastal Plain, also formed from sand and clay from the mouth of the Amazon. The region, covering some 6,600 square miles, consists of swampland. The soil of the swamps is clay, in which a great deal of peat has formed. The region is traversed by sandy ridges that run parallel to the coast. Suriname's most fertile soils occur in the inundated lands reclaimed by diking and drainage (polders), which are principally in the New Coastal Plain. South of the New Coastal Plain is the Old Coastal Plain, which covers some 1,550 square miles. It consists largely of fine clays and sands and contains a variety of topographies, including old ridges, clay flats, and swamps. South of the Old Coastal Plain is the Zanderij formation, a 40-mile-wide landscape of rolling hills. This formation rests on bleached sand sediments, rich in quartz. Most of the region is covered by tropical rain forest, but swamps and areas of savanna grassland are also found. Farther to the south is an area, covering some 80 percent of the country, that consists largely of a central mountain range, its various branches, and scattered hilly areas. The southern four-fifths of the country is almost entirely covered with tropical rain forest. In the southwest near the Brazilian border is the Sipaliwini Plain, another savanna area. The highest summit, at 4,035 feet (1,230 metres), is Juliana Top, in the Wilhelmina Mountains. Suriname's major rivers flow northward into the Atlantic. They include the Courantyne, which forms part of the boundary with Guyana, the Coppename, the Suriname, and the Maroni, which forms part of the border with French Guiana. The people The so-called Hindustanis, or East Indians, descendants of contract labourers from India, are the largest ethnic group, with more than a third of the population. The second major ethnic group is the Creoles, people of African or mixed European and African descent, who make up about a third of the population. The descendants of Javanese contract labourers make up about 14 percent of the population. Bush Negroes constitute less than 10 percent of the population, and American Indians make up about 3 percent. Minor ethnic groups include descendants of Chinese, Jewish, Lebanese, Portuguese, and Dutch immigrants; Creoles from the West Indies; and a few North Americans. Dutch is the official language, but the extent to which members of the various ethnic groups are able to use the language differs. Most of the population learns Dutch as a second language. English is widely spoken. Additional languages include Sranan (Taki-Taki) and other creole languages; Sarnami, which originated from Hindi and Urdu; Javanese; and a number of American Indian languages. The principal religion is Christianity, imposed on the population by European colonizers. About a third of the Creoles are Protestant, and another third are Roman Catholic. The East Indians are predominantly Hindu. Most of the Javanese and a small East Indian group are Muslim. Judaism, present in Suriname since the early 16th century, is still practiced, and many of the Chinese are Confucians. African and native Indian religions are still widely practiced. The population has a relatively high rate of natural increase. Birth and death rates have decreased since the 1960s. About 40 percent of the population is under 15 years of age, and about 75 percent is under 30. After 1973, when it was announced that Suriname would become independent, a large number of people emigrated to The Netherlands. By 1980, according to some estimates, one-third of the population had left the country; many of those who left were professionals and skilled workers. With the rise in 1986 of a guerrilla movement, based in northeastern Suriname and enjoying widespread support among Bush Negroes, the National Army has carried out raids in the Bush Negro villages. The killing and detaining of a large number of Bush Negroes has resulted in the flight of some 10,000 to 12,000 of them to French Guiana.