And last week, Chebat was in the deep south to sign an agreement with three villages in Toledo to bring hybrid electricity to the residents. Indian Creek, Medina Bank, and Golden Stream are three of 20 villages in Belize that don't have access to electricity. But with the CCJ ruling, the government needed the consent of the villagers before beginning the project. That made it slow and precarious going for the government learning how to use the FPIC protocol. The Minister told more yesterday.
Michel Chebat, Minister of Energy
"On Saturday we had the signing of an agreement with Indian Creek Village in accordance with the FPIC protocol. The agreement was to facilitate a micro grid and electrical plant that we're installing there, that is a 400 kilowatt plant and that's a solar plant, it's a hybrid actually, which is going to operate primarily on solar and it's going to bring electricity to Indian Creek, Golden Stream, and Medina Bank so we have about 425 households that will now be benefitting from electricity for the first time and I think that's a fantastic move, it brings not only electricity to the people of the south of those villages, but it gives them access to things like internet, it opens up the door for learning, we just spoke about learning, it opens up the door for health, to do business, so it opens up that entire community, those three villages in that community to so much more, it is part of the government's plan to give electricity, to have as much of our people as possible having access to electricity, as you may know, we have 20 remaining villages in the country that do not yet have electricity and this is part of that plan to make sure that they have access."
Courtney Menzies:
"What was that process like having to get consent from them before going ahead with the project?"
Michel Chebat, Minister of Energy
"Well you know, since the CCJ ruling, we have to respect the rights of our Maya people and so it took quite a while to engage, to share with them the benefits, to hear what their concerns were, to make sure that the rules that are being implemented are respectful of their traditional rights and so it did take a time, it did take some time to negotiate this agreement but you know I think in the end the people really understood the benefit of it and I must say I was really surprised at how welcoming they were to this, most of the villagers were out on Saturday to witness the signing of the agreement and they're really looking forward to having electricity in their village."
