And from politics governance...
The University of Belize land that was supposed to house the 90 million dollar training hospital has been soundly cast away and roundly criticized. The way politicians talk about it, you might think it was somewhere in the Chiquibul forest.
But, it's not; it's actually close to populated communities in Belmopan. Jules Vasquez used Google maps to get a view:
May 19, 2023
John Briceno, Prime Minister
"Whereas the purpose of the loan is to assist the government of Belize in financing the construction of a tertiary level hospital on the Belmopan campus of the University of Belize, which also serves as a university hospital for medical education."
This was in May of 2023, but one year later, something changed:
May 15, 2024
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"When the study was done, when the feasibility was done and they are suggesting that you know what, we needed to be close, one, to the airstrip - because it will have a helipad. We need to have access to, to the airstrip if anything."
Wait, if it has a helipad, why does it need access to the airstrip!?
Anyway, continuing...
May 15, 2024
Kevin Bernard, Minister of Health and Wellness
"And at the same time, the road access, we were looking at that."
A press release this week spells out in greater details all that's wrong with the UB land - and everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet:
Cordel Hyde, Minister of Natural Resources
"Where we were proposing to put the hospital on UB land was not the most ideal, was really not workable for them, pointing out that the location was 9 kilometers from the roadside which is six miles that you had to build a road, that getting there would have required going through a circuitous nature, I don't know what that means, but ultimately they didn't have water, didn't have light, didn't have internet, all of those infrastructure would have to go in there and you're talking about virgin territory, you're not talking about existing road or dirt road or anything like that."
But, is it really that remote?
First, the most simplified view - from above on Google maps. The area circled in red is the current university, all that green behind it is the thousand acres of unused university land, the area circled in red is the one hundred acres that had been proposed for the hospital. The road you see passing through the 1000 acres leads to the city council's new subdivision called Ennovabel.
Now, all this "L - Shaped" border area currently has water, light and road access.
And the 100 acres is also two blocks from one of the biggest schools in the area, Kuxlin Ha in Maya Mopan:
Ok, those are just maps though, on the ground, how different is it? Well, this is the John Saldivar road - yes there's a road - to the north of the property, if you follow it, it leads right into the hundred acres - which is where the gate is. This road has light water and pavement as you can see. It's next to Maya Mopan which is well populated.
On the west side of the property, there are also power lines.
This road in San Martin would have been one of the main access points, or there also this road, Cemetery Road which leads to the hundred acres. For sure, it's got traffic and travels through a residential neighborhood, but it's not in the middle of nowhere.
And if you wanted to avoid residential neighborhoods - there's also the entrance from the Western Highway which you see on this map in red - which goes into the J & W area through that purple road - the UB land circled in blue.
This cuts off at Circle R towards Belmopan which is where they are building the new bridge.
So, the land, while it may be remote, it is not carved out of the bush, many new developments are going up in the area - like the Dorothy Menzies Children's home.
Next week we'll look at the value of the 15 acre property that has been purchased for the hospital. At 460,000 dollars per acre, real estate experts we spoke to agree that it's exceptionally high, especially for bush land.
The UDP put out a release this evening saying, quote "The United Democratic Party calls on the corrupt Briceno government to reverse course and move forward with the construction of the teaching hospital on UB property as passed in the National Assembly."
