Apoera

Apoera
Apoera Location in Suriname
Coordinates:
Country	Suriname
District	Sipaliwini District
Resort (municipality)	Kabalebo

Apoera, also Apura, is a town in western Suriname. It is the final destination of the Southern East-West Link. 15 miles (24 km) north-west on the other side of the Courantyne River lies the Guyanese village of Orealla.

Geography

Apoera is part of the Kabalebo resort in the Sipaliwini District of Suriname. This city is situated on the Surinamese (Eastern) Bank of the river Corantijn and has about 3000 inhabitants, originally mainly Indians of the Arawak tribe. Apoera, apart from over the river, is also accessible via the road link Zanderij-Bitagron-Camp 52 (the southern East-West link). It is located about 24 km from the Guyanese village of Orealla. The town of Apoera is situated in the close vicinity of the Indian Village Washabo and the Washabo Airstrip.

Economic Development

In the framework of the West-Suriname plan from 1976 to 1978 an 80 kilometer long railway was built from the south of Apoera to the Bakhuis mountain range, for bauxite mining. It was intended that Apoera would be developed into a port where bauxite ships could dock, but in the end the railroad was never used for this purpose. According to this West Suriname Plan, Apoera would be transformed into a prosperous harbor city transporting bauxite coming from the Bakhuis Mountains to the ships in the harbor.

In the framework of the IIRSA project on the upgrading of the road between Ciudad Guayana, San Martín de Turumbang, Linden, Apoera and Paramaribo, a bridge spanning the Courantyne River is planned near Apoera. According to a study by Pitou van Dijk, the Linden-Paramaribo section has only secondary priority with IIRSA at the moment.

Currently there is a lot of timber extraction taking place at Apoera including at the modern business complex of the sawmill of the Greenheart Group. The company with its headquarters in Hong Kong owns 322,000 hectares of wood concessions and harvesting rights in Suriname.

Apoera has some lodges where tourists can stay during trips through the rain forest. The Surinamese writer Clark Accord wrote the novel "Between Apoera and Oreala" which was published in 2005.