Belize City Council Tackles Sargassum at Sand Lighter’s Promenade

The sargassum piling up near Sand Lighter’s Promenade is no longer just a smelly nuisance, it’s a cleanup challenge for Belize City. With the seaweed trapped along the shoreline and raising health concerns, the City Council has brought in harvesting equipment to remove it from the water. Assistant Engineer Ramon Menjivar says the material will be taken to the landfill, spread out to dry, and covered as the council looks for longer-term solutions.

 

Ramon Menjivar, Assistant Engineer, Belize City Council

“We have the seen the recent incoming to the shoreline [of] sargassum which has become on a more constant basis. So we have to come up with a solution because it’s a very toxic, smelly material that it can even be detrimental to our health. So, we, as the governing body for the city, we have to respond to all and any emergencies and, as you see, this is a great deposit of sargassum down the shoreline. We have seen that it has accumulated in this cove which is like a catchment basin and the current will not remove it from here. So, we have to come up with an innovative solution t have it extracted.”

 

Isani Cayetano

“You guys brought in a harvester to pull in the sargassum. Where is this being deposited and, perhaps, what’s the use for the sargassum deposits going forward?”

 

Ramon Menjivar

“Well right now, we’re just experiencing the equipment which, you can see, is very efficient, very fast, to collect the sargassum. From here, we put it on shore. It would have been very much effective if we could have dumped it into the truck from out of the water. But, unfortunately, due to the landscape it is not possible. From here, we take it to the landfill where we spread it on a thin layer, about six inches, eight inches the most and then it dries off and we plan to cover it.”

 

Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.

 

Watch the full newscast here: