The Carnival Cruise Terminal at the Port of Belize; it was announced in April of 2004 but since then the $100 million project has not progressed as scheduled, and not much has been heard about the thousand jobs that it is to create. Construction was to have commenced a year ago in August of 2005 but it didn't, and now, with the Carnival Corporation announcing a project of similar proportions on Guatemala's Pacific Coast, those hopes seem to be fading fast. And maybe that's why government is so eager to run all red lights, including one from the Department of the Environment, to push project-related work through.
7NEWS has investigated a case of the gob breaking its own laws, the Environmental Protection Act, just to make sure, the project developers have their way. Here's more.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
This is the site for the Belize Cruise Terminal Project, as seen from the sea and air. Dump trucks have been filling the area for months. But filling is one thing and reclamation is another. And that's what the Department of Environment has taken issue with: two strips of land about 15 feet across, which extend a third of a mile into the sea.
As with any reclamation, this could pose serious consequences, particularly for drainage out of the Port Loyola and Collet communities. But those serious environmental concerns are just that: concerns. Because no one really knows how this will or could affect the environment and that's because no Environmental
Impact Assessment has been done, even though work has been going on for months.
Normally that's illegal, but with this project it seems anything and everything is permitted. The folks at Belize Cruise Terminal Limited, that's the consortium between Luke Espat's Belize Ports Limited and Carnival Cruise Corporation, say they have a contract which exempts them from all local regulations, and that means everything from labour law, right down to the Environmental Protection Act.
Well, that's not the considered view of the Department of the Environment, and on June 10th., concerned about this major reclamation project going on in such an environmentally sensitive area, the DOE issued this stop order to the project. The June 13th stop order, or as it is called "an enforcement notice," says that they "must immediately cease all reclamation and construction works" on parcel 12, block 45, and parcel 4, block 45. More than that, it orders them to remove the two strips and restore the area to its original state, that means taking back in all the landfill.
But despite this clear and unequivocal directive, the principals at BCTL did not stop working. Rather than hauling up the fill, they've been busy putting in more. So on July 13th, one month after the disregarded stop order was issued, the Department of Environment wrote this letter, saying: "The department's personnel visited the area and noted that you have failed to comply...as land reclamation works were still being conducted." It then advises, "The Department would like to inform you that it has no further course but to initiate legal action against Port of Belize and Belize Cruise Terminal Limited."
That legal action commenced with this, an application to the Supreme Court made on the first August for an injunction against the still non-compliant Belize Cruise Terminal Limited. The application, number 380 of 2006, was filed by Nicola Cho, Legal Counsel for the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The injunction was set to be heard on Wednesday morning, August 9th before Justice Michelle Arana. The matter was to be based on this, a 10 page statement of claim from Cho, and a 12 page affidavit from Chief Environmental Officer Martin Allegria detailing the long history of environmental violations committed
by the developers, dating back to January of 2004 and culminating in June of 2006.
Detailing over a dozen concerns, it is a compelling study of environmental abuse and disregard for the Department and the Environmental Protection Act. And it was all going to court, set to be heard on August 9th, that is until the Prime Minister's office got wind of it. Reportedly trying to protect the economic importance of a project that continues to be delayed, the Prime Minister objected to Nicola Cho's independent action taken under the Environmental Protection Act, and demanded that the Department of the Environment defer to the government's attorney, the PM's former law partner and current Solicitor General Edwin Flowers.
And when Cho and the Ministry would not submit by withdrawing their action, Flowers did. He went over the DOE and the Ministry's heads, and went to the Registry on Friday August fourth to file this paper which says, simple and plain, "Take notice that the claimant wholly discontinues this action."
A review of subsequent documents would show why Flowers may have been only
too willing to do that. This 2002 document listing the Register of Directors of Belize Ports Limited shows the same Edwin Flowers as a Director of Belize Ports Limited, along with Luke Espat, Steve Nembhard and Bertha Espat.
And while that is one thing, this document is quite another. It shows that in may of 2004 Flowers was again present as Director of Belize Ports, except this time he was signing the transfer from Belize Ports Limited to Belize Cruise Terminal Limited, for block 45, parcel 4 in Port Loyola. If that sounds familiar, it should: it's the very same piece of land that you see here, the same one that's now being re-claimed, and the same one that's at the center of the current dispute with the Department of Environment.
But that apparent conflict is one thing, and this is quite another, and it's left to be seen how long government will sacrifice environmental protection on the altar of big money private investment.
And, to note one more irregularity, it's not lost on us that the Ministry of Natural Resources registered the transfer of block 45, parcel 4 in 2004 when that parcel did not even exist, because it had not yet been reclaimed.
