And keeping it on the Cabinet, today, the Prime Minister reported back to his Cabinet colleagues about his trip to Berlin, Germany.
The PM led a delegation of technical experts to open a discussion with a German company about a possible solution to the sargassum headache that plague beaches of the Caribbean and Central America. Apart from the eyesore and stench that comes with rotting Sargassum, it is having a major impact on the country's tourism industry. So, this German company is making a sales pitch that they can turn sargassum into biofuel.
The PM discussed that possible solution with our colleagues from CTV3 in Orange Walk yesterday:
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"We all know that the Caribbean has this crisis, a sargassum crisis. The sargassum, when it comes to shore, it's starts to rot, and it smells like rotten eggs. It's affecting not only the tourism industry, but it's even affecting the fish. It's affecting marine life; it's affecting the Barrier Reef because it prevents the sunlight from hitting the reef. And so, governments in the region have been trying to find ways of how can we have can we solve this. There's a company in Berlin that has - seems to have the technology to be able to take the Sargassum, put it into a vacuum, and burn it and get biofuel. And then, the biofuel can be used now for an electric plant to be able to create energy. So through the vice-chairman, I was invited to meet with them and have a discussion about using Belize as a pilot project. So, the idea is that they will come to Belize. We will be finding ways how we can collect the Sargassum offshore, not onshore, before it comes to the shore. And then -out there to put it in bails. So, you squeeze out the water and then bring it onshore, too, to be able to process it into a biofuel. The idea is that if this can work, then we can be able to replicate this. The company can replicate this in the different islands in the Caribbean."
Reporter
"How soon can we expect their visit to Belize?"
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Well, we've set a timeline. There's a memorandum of understanding that we will sign. We have not signed it yet. We're just asking the Attorney General's Ministry to take a look at it because Belize is not going to be putting up any money. It is going to be through SIDS DOCK, the company, through UNIDO. That's the industrial arm of the United Nations. They are going to be funding the research, and then the company - once we've passed that - and will be signing an agreement with the PUC/BEL to be able to sell electricity to the grid. And the idea is to be able to do it in San Pedro, close to the waste processing area that they have. They also believe that they can use this sargassum and use some of the garbage that the people of San Pedro are generating to convert into energy and feed electricity to San Pedro and Caye Caulker. We have set a timeline of two years. We believe that within two years that that can be up and running."
