Last night, we told you about the land dispute that Belize Water Services Limited currently finds itself in.
The land its reverse osmosis plant is on in San Pedro was sold from under it to an offshore company based in Anguilla.
BWSL held a valid lease to that property, parcel 4043, which it is currently using to dig wells for a reverse osmosis water treatment plant - which is vital to the future supply of water on San Pedro. But, in what appears to be those irregular land ownership duplications, Crocodile Lagoon Estate Company now has full title to the same piece of land.
Reports say the Crocodile company paid a modest $,5,568.00 dollars for 1.42 acres of the park of land south of San Pedro Town, but now it has hired a top Belizean law firm to agitate for damages at the market value of the property. They say that it has been, quote, "appraised at over 1.8 million US dollars". End quote.
Our reports say that the entire fiasco - which jeopardises San Pedro's water future - has been brought to the attention of the Cabinet for a decision from the government about how best to proceed.
Today, we got an opportunity to speak with Andre Perez, the Area Representative. Here's what he had to say about the dubious duplication of ownership that gave birth to this dispute:
Hon. Andre Perez, Area Rep., Belize Rural South
"I was fully aware what was going on even before the elections. We were being made aware that these lands were being taken away. Of course, the history of that piece of property goes all the way back to 2012. And I know it all too well. With that land, weeks before the last elections, remember the Barrow administration didn't wait for the 5 years, they called snap elections on the 4th year, because they were riding this popular streak and they decide to call elections which they almost lost. But that is where we saw all the fiasco occurring in Ambergris Caye and Caye Caulker with the lang grabbing. That specific one you are taking about is a direct result of the consequence of that election. That piece of land is a critical part of an important service that BWSL provides for that entire Ambergris Caye and pretty much it threatens to hold us at ransom with water shortage."
"Prior to that you had the previous companies at the time BWSL which was WASA then did not have the technology or the know how investments to make a reverse osmosis desalinating plant which actually Ambergris Caye became the first, so it was outsources to other people to do it and it eventually came back to what is BWSL. This is where we discovered this piece of property here and the legal implicalities are complicated and I don't want to engage in that, but we do know, me personally as the area representative of that Belize Rural South I am appalled and shocked and actually as I said before it makes your stomach turn to these things how is it that someone was able to get this piece of property that belongs to BWSL, getting it for just a pittance and yet they actually have the audacity to go to court and expect to ask for millions of dollars to give back land that rightfully belongs to the community of Ambergris Caye."
"We cannot put right now what the Ministry of Natural Resources is going to be doing, it is what BWSL has to rightfully fight for those and we have to engage in what is legally mandated. We know everybody have rights, even the people who are claiming to own it, they have rights, so they have to seek redress in court. It already reach to the table of the cabinet before and we are already engaging into legal avenues to pursue this matter. At this point in time there is not much more that the government can do, but wait for what happens at the courts. We as the leaders we have to go back to the drawing board in the event of whatever happens, if we are unable to get these lands back, we will have to go back to the drawing board and find other pieces of lands where we can do this expansion of the water which is essential. We will fix it."
One option that is open to BWSL is that they can commence a supreme court claim against the Government of Belize, via the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Attorney General's Ministry. But, in that case, the water company would basically be suing its majority shareholder.
