With the excessive rains, all across the country, Belizeans are dealing with bad roads. But for a place like Caye Caulker in the pitch of the tourist season where there are no gravel or concrete roads -it's a disaster!
And while that's bad enough, today residents called us saying that a local developer is adding insult to injury by exporting their precious sand to San Pedro - the same sand they need to fix their streets. Daniel Ortiz travelled to the island today to find out why Caye Caulker residents are so salty about what they think is sand stealing - he uses amateur video form the residents to tell his story:
Daniel Ortiz reporting
The residents of Caye Caulker took matters into their own hands today and organized their own blockade to stop 2 trucks from removing sand from their island.
That was when things came to a head, frustration took over, and they decided they had had enough.
For 2 weeks now, they started noticing that trucks were filling up with sand and taking it to a barge, which was transporting it out. They thought nothing of it at first, thinking the Village Council had kicked into gear to fix their damaged streets. They eventually found out that their sand ended up on San Pedro. The outrage spread like wildfire afterwards.
Jamie Rosado - Resident, Caye Caulker Village
"This morning we took it upon ourselves as a village and we all came together and we decided that enough is enough, we will stop this and today will be day we will stop this. We got to the back pier and we decided to block it off. There were two trucks there and we told them that they cannot leave with our sand. We told them to empty their trucks and we will give them a little pass to get on their barge and leave. That's exactly what they did."
Porfilio Guzman - Resident, Caye Caulker Village
"As far as I could remember for the last village council, they had permission to stock pile the sand. The dredge digs sand out here from the sea and stock pile on the land of Caye Caulker so that they can use it to spread on the streets of Caye Caulker. I don't know what happen. Two weeks ago, we had a barge here and they took about 20 truckloads and it came yesterday and took another 20 truckloads. Came this morning again and we the people of Caye Caulker decide that enough is enough because we need our sand for Caye Caulker and the sand was going to San Pedro."
When they first made the discovery, they thought that it was being stolen. After a vigorous probe for answers, that's when they found out that some private entity had a contract, which they said was secret, which allowed them to take the sand.
Jamie Rosado - Resident, Caye Caulker Village
"I think we are beyond upset at this point in time. We have watch these trucks and this barge moved 40-80 loads of sand per day off our island and if you walk around the island the water is ankle height. Our streets are in horrible condition. Our village council and our minister chose to give our sand to San Pedro rather than fill our streets. I live next to the school and the children go to school in rubber boots because the water is so high. We are asking for the village council to tell us something, we've been behind them for weeks and we've gotten no answers."
"We were asking the village council from way before and nobody wanted to comment, nobody wanted to give us an answer, so this was the final straw that we had to take to get some answers."
Wayne Miller - Chairman, Caye Caulker Village
"Every villager has ask us and we've gotten many calls - we have told them the 10%, 90% thing and everybody that we've spoken to understood it. You can ask villagers that have called in or came in to ask us."
Today's protest and blockade to stop the removal of the sand led to the group of about 50 residents gathering in front of their village council's office demanding answers.
No matter what explanation he gave, they returned a resounding rejection. Their simple logic is, the sand belongs to their island, their streets need it for desperate repairs, and giving it away is just not an option.
Jamie Rosado - Resident, Caye Caulker Village
"This council let us down and I was one that voted for you and I will tell you face to face that you are letting us down."
Wayne Miller - Chairman, Caye Caulker Village
"But we don't own the sand."
Jamie Rosado - Resident, Caye Caulker Village
"Mr. Miller, we own Caye Caulker, you are the chairman, stand up for your people. All of your councilors are hiding."
Daniel Ortiz
"Are you satisfied with the reasons that your chairman has given to you as to why it needs to leave the island?"
Michael Joseph - Resident, Caye Caulker Village
"At this point I am satisfied of his reason; his reason being that there is an existing contract. I am not satisfy however because if you have a need then your need comes first."
So how did it end up that this private entity, whose moving hand continues to operate from behind the curtains, end up with permission to remove and sell the sand? Well, the chairman says this contract, which wasn't signed by his administration, grants it.
Wayne Miller - Chairman, Caye Caulker Village
"We have a contract with Damien Chamberlin, the guy that dredges. We get 10% of the sand and he gets the rest of the sand to do whatever he does with. Apparently what happens, a Ministry of Tourism project came up in San Pedro and he got a contract to sell some sand. So he came over, move the sand from Caye Caulker (his part of it) to San Pedro. That's basically the gist of the whole thing."
Reporter
"Speaking with you earlier you were saying that the village council only has 10% ownership over the total sand at the pit."
Wayne Miller - Chairman, Caye Caulker Village
"The part of the contract is that whatever sand he dredges; if he dredges 10 truckloads, we get one."
The citizens did make a strong point, the streets are in terrible condition, and that sand could definitely be used here on these streets, which have ponds in the middle of them.
School children have to use these streets and they can't help but have to trudge through the water with their shoes.
Wayne Miller - Chairman, Caye Caulker Village
"Back in May every street on this island was fixed."
Resident
"That's a lie."
Wayne Miller - Chairman, Caye Caulker Village
"We came in - I think we were sworn in July 18. The record shows that the bank account went from $140,000 to $525.00, which is what we inherited. We asked the Ministry of Local Government where all this money went. The answer being, we fixed all the streets on Caye Caulker."
Michael Joseph - Resident, Caye Caulker Village
"For me, its common sense; if you have material to fix the streets, then fix the streets. Don't give away the material. Don't take the shirt off your back to give to somebody else because you will get cold and then get sick. I based everything on common sense; you have the material, use the material. In a sense, we are better off than the rest of the country. The rest of the country has to fight for money to get material. Now, we have it, why give it away."
Jamie Rosado - Resident, Caye Caulker Village
"The children go to school and the school yard is full of water. We could use that sand for the betterment of the school as well. We don't need them to be taking it to San Pedro. San Pedro can dredge behind San Pedro for their sand, leave what is for Caye Caulker on Caye Caulker."
And that leads to their resolve; they will purposefully block the remove of the sand until the contract with the private entity expires, even if they face a lawsuit.
Michael Joseph - Resident, Caye Caulker Village
"I am satisfied also that he explained that the contract ends December 31st. What happens this morning is a preview to what will happen every time that barge comes. We will stop it right through to the 31st. So that contract will run out and no sand will leave the island, contract finishes, sand stays, we happy."
Wayne Miller - Chairman, Caye Caulker Village
"The first contract was back in 2008 I think. It's been ongoing for many years. The contract goes from January to December, we came in July. The contract will expire in two weeks, it exists. I could do either one or two things; I can break the contract and you know the consequences of that or I could let it run out and re-configure it. It's a simple concept."
Daniel Ortiz
"Supposed that individual takes legal action against you guys?"
Michael Joseph - Resident, Caye Caulker Village
"Well, he is going to take legal against the village of Caye Caulker. How far will he get?"
Chairman Wayne Miller showed us the documents of the contract which allows for the sand to be removed. It's important to stress that the private company doing this is not doing anything that is illegal. The document which we saw is a registered quarry permit issued under the Mines and Minerals Act. The permit says that it was, quote, "...issued to Alberto Villannueva on or behalf of the Caye Caulker Village Council to extract, sand, silt, and mud from area A...". End Quote.
Seen here on the Map, area A is in a part of the island known as Bahia puesto Del Sol. The document also outlines the lease arrangement between the Caye Caulker Village Council and a company known as, Belize Marine and Sand Company Limited. As Chairman Miller told us in our interview, the company is only obligated to provide the council with 10% of the sand that it has dredged from area A. That converts directly to a ratio of 1 out of 10 truckloads of sand belongs to the council. Miller says that the company is in good standing as outlined in the lease agreement.
We'll attempt to get in touch with representatives of Belize Marine and Sand Company Limited for tomorrow's newscast.
