For a number of weeks now, a proposed development in Seine Bight, a village on the Placencia Peninsula, has been riling up residents.
A group of developers has expressed interest in building a gas station in the village, but they continue to face opposition from some of the residents who insist that it is a bad idea. We understand that the proposed location for this facility is a major source of dispute for the Garifuna residents of Seine Bight. That's because they're claiming that it is a location where they conduct sacred cultural rites.
We understand that the situation flared up a few weeks ago, where a group of residents protested against the project. They demanded the intervention of their area representative, Rodwell Ferguson, who is also the Minister of Public Utilities Energy, Logistics, and Transport. We understand that Ferguson attempted to mediate the situation as best as possible, but there are still disgruntled villagers who are agitating for the gas station project to be scrapped completely.
One of those residents came all the way from Seine Bight to our Belize City Office to vent her frustration that the project still appears to have the necessary clearance to move forward. Here's what she had to say:
Lavern Arzu - Member, NGC Seine Bight
"Right now, our concern is a gas station that is being built right in front of my house, and not even like 10 feet away from some houses. We don't even have a fire station. We don't have a health center. In fact, nobody approved that area that the gas station was built. So, we put 1-month health that they close it off for a month."
"We are against the location where this gas station is due to the fact that they had several houses that burnt down in that same area. And so many coconut trees blaze up out of nothing in that same area. There is where we have our spiritual 'Dabuyaba'. The Dabuyaba is our spiritual healing and our church that we have there. That is our sacred place. I can't understand where this approval came from."
"I called on Mr. Rodwell Ferguson and the Indigenous Ministry for a meeting in Seine Bight. In fact, it was the village council who called them because of the issue that people in Seine Bight were so mad that they had to come and see what the issue was. I couldn't believe that they would have environmental - all those people who approved that gas station. I couldn't believe that they would have approved it without even stamping the ground without even authorizing and telling people that this project was going to go on."
"We went to the development because we do a lot of protests because due to the coronavirus protocols. We have to follow the protocols. So, what we do, we did our petition. We do our protests, but we do it in a peaceful kind of way because we are Garinagu people, and we are spiritual people." This evening, we spoke with Rodwell Ferguson who told us that as far as he is informed, a group of investors went through the government procedures, and they applied last year to build the gas station in Seine Bight. They were granted final approval in May of this year, and Ferguson was informed by the Department of Environment, the developers do not need to conduct any sort of consultation, as long as the development group meets the criteria. Nevertheless, some sort of consultations were reportedly conducted with the Village Council."
Ferguson told us that he learned about the project about a month ago when he was called by a resident. He said that he went to the village and conducted consultations along with his colleague, Dolores Balderamos-Garcia, the Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs.
Ferguson added that the number of people who attended his consultation meeting was small, and so, it was agreed that a petition or a survey would be conducted to sample the public opinion of the villagers on whether or not they support the construction of the gas station.
That survey was conducted a few days ago, and the results, according to Ferguson, were that 268 residents supported the development, and only 50 voted against it. So, Ferguson gave the green light for the project to continue, as long as the developers met the necessary requirements of the building authorities and the Department of the Environment. Ferguson told us that in his estimation, the majority of the villagers want the gas station to be built. He conceded that maybe the location chosen might not be the best, but he says that villagers are still in support of it, because their access to fuel becomes a lot easier than having to travel to Placencia Village.
