And while kilos of cocaine have been washing up in Caye Caulker and San Pedro, in Punta Gorda they'd probably take all that with its attendant dangers over the tones of garbage that they've had to deal with. Earlier this week, garbage began washing up on the shores of Punta Gorda. It became a major concern yesterday when the garbage just kept on coming onto shore and accumulating there. Now the stench of the garbage is unbearable and municipal and environmental organizations are scrambling to have it cleaned up. With the help of TIDE, the Toledo Institute for Development and Environment, and resident Kelly King we have pictures that catalogue this awful problem.
Alfonso Noble Reporting,
Residents of Punta Gorda woke up yesterday morning to the sight of tonnes upon tonnes of garbage on the shores of the town. Will Maheia is the executive director of TIDE, his organization usually deals with this kind of problem but on this day Maheia says they are just overwhelmed by the volume of garbage.
Will Maheia, TIDE
"This morning the TIDE crew got up early. We spent a couple hours picking up garbage to help the town council but it was like we didn't even make a dent. Like I said this morning the TIDE crew along with members of the Punta Gorda Town Council started the cleanup because it's far more than we can do. With the amount of garbage we need trucks, we need garbage bags, we need manpower to help to clean up this shore because already a lot of it is rotting and breaking down. So I would advise, especially now that it is summer and a lot of kids would be trying to swim in the ocean, I would advise them to please hold back for a couple of days because you could see that it is beginning to stink already."
The stench is attributed to the kind of garbage that is floating in the waters. It's an odious eyesore and a health hazard to the people of Punta Gorda.
Will Maheia,
"We have some incredible amounts of garbage that just started showing up. It just started showing up on the shore here. We've had a lot of rain and we believe because Toledo or Punta Gorda is situated right in the Gulf of Honduras, that a lot of this garbage is coming from Guatemala and from Honduras because you have the big rivers in Honduras and Guatemala that flow into the Gulf and the winds have been blowing out of the south recently hence the amount of garbage that we have.
I was born and raised here in the Toledo District and I have never seen garbage to this extent. At the bottom mixed in with those sea weeds are lots of sticks, lots of plastic bottles, lots of perfume bottles, needles, syringes,
oil bottles---everything type of garbage that you could think about. The amount of plastic that is floating in the ocean right now or floating in the port of Punta Gorda town right now is just incredible."
But more than incredible Maheia says this garbage is a danger. Images sent to seven news show children playing near the garbage, trying to salvage toys that floated down, and actually swimming in the garbage.
Will Maheia,
"We will try and call the health authorities this morning to come in and make some type of assessment. We don't have anyone with expertise in that field working with us. But it is definitely something that needs serious attention because you can smell the stench just walking along the beach."
Now the stench that permeates the shoreline of Punta Gorda is giving the people a clear and very real example of how interconnected the world is. What happens in someone's back yard will eventually end up on another's beaches.
Will Maheia,
"In Belize we have two hundred and ninety thousand people. Within an hour of Punta Gorda you have close to a million people on the coastline of Guatemala and Honduras. So there is so much garbage coming from within an hour of Punta Gorda. From time to time you will have the seaweed and some garbage that comes along with it but I have never seen garbage in the magnitude that's coming into our shoreline."
Alfonso Noble,
In terms of tonnage, how much tons do you think of this stuff is out there?
Will Maheia,
"Its hard to estimate because some of it is like a couple feet deep but its definitely several hundred tons."
And now these hundreds of tons of garbage are posing a real threat to the Punta Gorda residents and they are asking for someone, anyone to help them.
TIDE along with the Punta Gorda Town Council is already beginning the task of taking the garbage out of the water and transporting it to the Punta Gorda dumpsite but they need assistance to complete the task.
