Sto­ry by AN­NA-LISA PAUL

Days af­ter sev­er­al peo­ple were seen lim­ing at the Cau­ra Riv­er, the pop­u­lar pub­lic space has been closed down by Gov­ern­ment.

This fol­lows the PM’s an­nounce­ment that pub­lic gath­er­ings should not ex­ceed ten per­sons, and his hint that Gov­ern­ment was con­sid­er­ing crack­ing down on lim­ing at bars and rivers.

Dur­ing yes­ter­day’s me­dia con­fer­ence, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley had in­di­cat­ed that gov­ern­ment was con­sid­er­ing whether bars could lose their li­cences for breach­ing the reg­u­la­tions, as well as re­strict­ing ac­cess to Cau­ra Riv­er and oth­er pop­u­lar pub­lic spaces, since gath­er­ing at these sites could be con­sid­ered pub­lic health threats.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed Cau­ra Riv­er, this morn­ing, the area was de­sert­ed, ex­cept for a small group of CEPEP work­ers.

In ad­di­tion, con­crete bar­ri­ers had been placed at the main en­trance to pre­vent any­one from ac­cess­ing the riv­er.

Two CEPEP work­ers—Damion Phillip and Keisha Hinds—told Guardian Me­dia the bar­ri­ers at both Pools One and Two were placed there around 10.30 pm yes­ter­day.

They al­so said Lo­cal Gov­ern­ment Min­is­ter Kaz­im Ho­sein and MP Es­mond Forde vis­it­ed the area around 7 am to­day, to en­sure there were no er­rant bathers at the Cau­ra Riv­er.

The CEPEP work­ers praised the move by gov­ern­ment to of­fi­cial­ly close the riv­er, as they said it would re­duce the wa­ter pol­lu­tion and garbage of­ten left by users.