And as the construction at Port Coral progresses, the concerns of environmental NGO's grows. The coalition of NGO's which includes Oceana Belize, Southern Environmental Association, Belize Audubon Society, Fragments of Hope, and more wrote a joint letter to the Minister of Sustainable Development, Orlando Habet. In this letter dated September 22nd, they detailed their concerns for the port's proposed causeways and requested copies of the Environmental Compliance Plan. They also asked for additional public consultation on this aspect of the project.
Some of the NGO's wrote a separate letter to the Chief Environmental Officer requesting other documents, such as those pertaining to meetings held by the National Environmental Appraisal Committee and those concerning the Environmental Impact Assessment.
The executive direction of SEA told us today via Zoom that they feel they should be a part of this project, considering its magnitude. They also believe they should be involved in consultations and discussions to properly monitor the environmental impacts.
Arreini Palacio Morgan added that they weren't even aware that the causeway had been approved until they saw a billboard and when they checked the department's website, they could not find the ECP, which is public information.
Arreine Morgan Palacio, Executive Director, SEA
"Our request really is for us to take a look at the environmental compliance plan or ECPs. ECPs are public documents that the department of the environment would normally publish on their website. When we saw the billboard when that became a part or our attention we did do a little bit of research into where the ECP is by taking a look at the website, noted that it wasn't there, so we simply requested of the CEO for sustainable development as well as the minister and the department of the environment fpr us to take a look at the environmental compliance plan to assure us of exactly what the standards are as it regards to the building of the causeway, also for us to be aware of what monitoring will be going on in terms of the building of such. Subsequent to the submission of the letter to the minister and the CEO, they were gracious to give some of our members from the coalition of NGOs, they were able to have us meet with them and at that meeting they did state that there is an environmental compliance plan for the causeway that apparently was signed in 2019, so we are really looking forward to taking a look at that ECP and see how best we can become involved in any monitoring, if necessary."
"The more contentious of the project was the causeway. The potential negative impacts possible damages to our sensitive marine environment were some of the things that came out during the public consultation. Definitely is that something we want in Belize City is pleasing to the eye, how will that affect our environment? How we will be able to monitor this? how will we be able to mitigate any kind of damages that may potentially take place? these are some of the concerns that we had brought up at that time and those concerns remain. Even if there was studies that were done back then, a lot had change in the years, a lot has changed in 10, 12, 3 years - environmentally, economically, even in our health, so clearly we would appreciate to be involved, be consulted on in regards to how best we can put our input into a successful project in Belize if that were the case."
And we also asked Morgan about the frustration that comes with monitoring three proposed ports.
Arreine Morgan Palacio, Executive Director, SEA
"We are at this moment monitoring the development of the projects. There are different stages right now for example the Stakebank is already in development phase. We have Port Magical which is going navigating the EIA process and moving on to development and then we have the other port that is being proposed that is navigating its way through the department of the environment and the EIA process. There is a lot going on in deed and it's a lot for us to be able to take in, but we are trying to be as vigilant as we possibly can ensuring that we are involved, ensuring that we are informed of the projects, so that we can have some sort of input into them. As you would note within a very small square mileage there are 3 ports that are being proposed. We really want to know the effect to the environment, not much per project. There must be an effect to the environment, so these are the things that we are taking a look at as we navigate our position for these projects."
The coalition is hoping to get a response within the next week.
