Last week residents in one Southside community complained of the unbearable levels of muck and mud they have to deal with when it rains.
Well the rains are gone this week but for one community on the other side of town that has caused another problem. They are complaining of dust and residents on Dungeon Drive in the Coral Grove Area on the northside say they just want to breathe. Keith Swift reports.
Keith Swift Reporting,
It’s named Dungeon Drive but residents and those who live around here say you might as well call it Sand Dune Drive…and that is because a sand dune’s volume of dust is what they say they are living in.
Rita Jennett, Area Resident
“I am a prisoner at my own home, a prisoner without bars. I am a prisoner here even inside the house. I have to keep the house closed up. I can’t even open up and enjoy the sea breeze because of the dust that’s coming into the house.”
Patricia Raymond, Disgusted with Dust
“Yesterday I was walking down with her and the dust was so unbearable that we had to ask the truck to kind of slow down because it looked like there was a cloud behind him and you couldn’t see beyond that.”
Agnus Vernon, Area Resident
“We do have a problem with the dust especially during the dry season. During the rainy season it is no problem but during the dry season the dust does occur terrible.”
KS: How bad does it get?
Agnus Vernon,
“It gets to the point where its difficult for you to do any kind of painting or inside work or like how we are doing the inside work on the house its pretty disturbing.”
Disturbing for Angus Vernon but downright depressing and possibly unhealthy for 66-year-old Rita Jennett who after 38 years in the U.S. returned to Belize to retire. But she never expected retirement to be this dusty.
Rita Jennett,
“I came back here to live in Belize hoping to have a nice beautiful time and what I am enjoying is dust. I can’t sit on my porch, I can’t enjoy the outside, I can’t enjoy anything about Belize right now where I am living because of the dust. I can’t entertain on my porch and I can’t do anything. I can’t even walk the steps and given my age, I’m going to be 66 next month, I can’t hold the porch to walk up because its dust. Everything is under dust and its causes eye infections. I go to the doctor and he says the eye infection is from the dust. So we are dealing with this environment and its really bad for all of us. All the neighbors are going through the same thing, you can go to them, and you will see the dust just covers everything in and out the house just everything. Everything is just dust and its been going on for 3 years now.”
But Dungeon Drive wasn’t always like this, the boulevard was paved not too long ago. But many potholes and rainstorms later, you have this…which looks more like a dirt road. And when those rains do come, the graders come in to level the potholes. But instead of fixing the problem, residents say it only aggravates the other problem.
KS: So when it rains?
Rita Jennett,
“When it rains we are very happy to have the rain so we don’t mind that rain that came last week because it kept everything clean and everything was given a good wash down so its kind of looking a lot better than it did last week before the rains.”
KS: Most people complain about the rains because of the mud but you guys welcome it?
Rita Jennett,
“We love the rain. We rather have the potholes than the dust.”
KS: They might actually think they are helping when after the rain they come in to grade the streets.
Rita Jennett,
“They are not helping. They are not helping us. We prefer the street to stay with the pothole because the traffic slows down with the potholes. When there is no potholes we have a freeway here and its like a highway.”
And if it is a freeway of dust and these residents are looking for the nearest exit.
The Belize City Council today accepted responsibility for grading Dungeon Drive however the city engineer was unavailable to answer any further questions. Dungeon Drive is in the Caribbean Shores electoral division which is represented by Jose Coye who just happens to be the Minister of Works. Our attempts to reach Coye today were unsuccessful.
7NEWS produced for broadcast by News Director Jules Vasquez
Edited for the internet by Keith Swift