In March of 2022, the village of Indian Creek made international headlines when they led a protest against Prince William's planned visit to their community. Their message? Consent had not been sought for his arrival. So, though small, this is a village that knows how to assert its rights.
And that's why it was news on Friday when the Village Council of Indian Creek signed an agreement with the government to activate a solar project, The solar grid had been prepared but could not be activated until the FPIC protocol with was signed between the village and the state - meaning, free, prior and informed consent.
In his speech on Friday, the area rep said it was difficult - but they have to find a way to make it easier:
Oscar Requena, Area Representative, Toledo West
"Thursday when I saw that Indian Creek finally gave the consent for the project to proceed, I was the happiest person. And I'll tell you why, maybe I was happier than Indian Creek, I don't know. But I was happy because I know that the people of Indian Creek have been waiting for electricity for a long, long time. This has not been an easy road ladies and gentlemen. Has not been easy. There was a delay because we had to go through the process and what is the process? The process is that the Caribbean Court of Justice ruled that the Maya have rights to their land, to their customary land and as such government is required to put in place a process of consultation, to consult the community to get their consent for whatever development we are going to bring to the community and we have to respect that."
"Now, I will tell you, whilst I respect that and it is good that we now have in place a FPIC protocol, because thats really what was used. I really think that we have to learn to speed up these things, because the delay has affected you. You know how many people have said to me, Minister, we want our light."
"The government has made every commitment to respect the Maya people and we do that every day. Unfortunately, sometimes there are things that are said that does not help the process. We have to learn to work together. That's one of the challenges we have. Sometimes I feel like we are all in a race - I want look good. Its not only me to look good and you must not look good and then that one wants to look good and she must not look good, only she must look good. That doesn't help us."
"Whilst we fight, we stay behind. Whilst we quarrel, we stay behind and development does not come."
Ernesto Choc, Chairman, Indian Creek
"The long delay is now in the past and we look forward to the new development, the implementation of this project such as internet, computers, labs for our schools and improved business centers."
Jose Choc, Alcalde, Indian Creek Village
"It is true the electricity is very important for us in Indian Creek. So many years Indian Creek was delayed and we didn't have anything. But the thing is the school is very important for us to make our children study hard and study more education."
San Vicente, Jalacte, San Benito Poite and Corazon have completed FPIC agreements and - will get electrified under an EU program.
This solar system for Indian Creek was funded by the United Arab Emirates - and here's a technical overview:
Ryan Cobb, Energy Director, Ministry of Public Utilities, Energy and Logistics
"It's one of the first of its kind within the country. It's a 400kWh solar hybrid system mini-grid where we will be producing electricity from solar panels, batteries and diesel generation as backup. What will happen is that this grid is isolated, so it's not connected to the national grid and will be producing power locally clean energy here and we have partnered with Belize Electricity Limited where they will be operating and maintaining the system."
"One of the benefits of partnering with BEL is that the residents of Indian Creek will be able to enjoy power at the national rate. So they will not be paying any expensive power, they will be paying power at the same rate as any other Belizeans within the country. It's going to be 400kWh of power from solar panels and the rest will be coming from a diesel generator, but this will primarily be use for battery protection or backup whenever let's say we have a hurricane or rains where the sun doesn't shine for about 3 days or more, then we will be using that."
"What we will now be moving on to is the installation of service entrances throughout the village so that the villagers themselves can be connected. This will go out continue on throughout the rest of the year and the distribution network as well due to limited supply of certain things such as transformers which is internationally procured."
Indian Creek, Golden Stream and Medina Bank will also benefit from this program.
