But, to protect Belize's territorial sea and its exclusive economic zone, the Minister responsible for the Environment wants Belizeans to start thinking about the negative impacts their actions can have on all the bodies of water that eventually flow into the sea.
Last Friday, Orlando Habet was engaging the press in a conversation about environmental impacts on the country's rivers. Here's what he had to say about some of the agricultural practices that have been harming these major waterways that flow out to the coastline.
Hon. Orlando "Landy" Habet - Minister of Sus. Dev., Climate Change & Disaster Risk Management
"There's are things that have been happening for ages, and possibly, we weren't aware of what we were doing. But it has to do somewhat with development. So, people say development brings problems, but one of the main issues that we've had, especially with rivers and their effect on the sea is river mining, especially in those areas that have sand and gravel. So, we take it out. It affects the flow. It starts putting a lot of siltation into the ocean. The siltation can reach the reef, starts affecting the coral, and then we have major problems. If you, go - maybe this river doesn't show it much, but if you go along the Belize River, you see the embankments falling in because there has been a lot of extraction of material from within the river. The river changes its shape, and then you see all the silt going in. But, we also have - because people have sought out, for the agriculture industry, the best land to produce their crops, and so, they know that the sandy loamy soils are the best soils, the most fertile soils, and that's where a lot of farming takes place. So, you have cattle production, agriculture production, you have the use of pesticides, herbicides, and so there is a lot of leachate into the soil. It goes into the groundwater; some go into the river. That goes into the ocean and affects the coral."
