As viewers are aware, the PBL project contemplates that as part of the project, they would need to dredge 7.5 million cubic meters of the coastline in front of the Port's compound.
That element of the proposal has caught the attention of Belizeans, primarily because all those dredge spoils will need to be placed somewhere, and the developers are proposing onshore and nearshore disposal sites. Well, this morning, Valdemar Andrade, the head of the Turneffe Atoll Sustainability Association - who is also a former BTB Cruise Tourism Director - pointed out that Belizeans need to know the fine print that comes with the proposed dredging for this project.
He explained why:
Valdemar Andrade - Executive Director, TASA
"You know, the consultation needs multiple prongs, right? Like, with the House. We have an opportunity to lodge something in writing and, you know, so that that's officially there. With this as well, we have to do that because, for example, take one question that was posed by a technical person. This is a person from port that knows the jobs. He says, for the geotechnical curtains that you are proposing to hold in all of this, waste that you are going to put, give us five examples of where this has been done in the world because when you read up on those geotechnical curtains, they are not used for those volumes of work. Right. Because I think many people - I think it was 50 football fields that we were talking about here, or how much?"
Senator Janelle Chanona - VP, Oceana Belize
"We're talking about almost half of the Blue Hole, 200 school busses worth of material. So, 7.5 million cubic meters of dredge spoils is not a little bit of thing we're talking about."
Valdemar Andrade
"And, even that is not consistent in the ESIA, Right? You don't know exactly what volumes we are talking about here. And honestly, you don't know what volumes you're dealing with until you start to dredge. The other issue I have with dredging, right, and people need to understand this, right? Once you initiate dredging, it's a dredging program. It will never stop, Right? So, one thing I think many people don't know, right here at Fort Street Tourism Village, is dredged annually to ensure that their boats can come in. But do you know who pays for that dredging?"
Kevin Mendez - Sunup Host
"I don't know."
Valdemar Andrade
"We pay for that dredging. It is fronted by Fort Street Tourism Village, but at the end of the day, the taxpayers pay it back. So, that's the way it works. And that is why you have to be careful about the details that you are agreeing to whenever you're looking at these -."
Kevin Mendez
"Thank you for -."
Senator Janelle Chanona
"That could be a whole other show, guys, in terms of the breakdown of that head tax."
Kevin Mendez
"It would be valuable for us to have that conversation?"
Renata Samuels - Sunup Host
"We already know what we'll have our next conversation on, Shantel."
Kevin Mendez
"Right."
