SP Town Council Reallocates Over $2 Million to Tackle Sargassum

Keeping San Pedro’s beaches clean is costing millions. Mayor Wally Nuñez says the ongoing sargassum crisis remains a major burden for the island, both environmentally and financially. The town council spent more than two million dollars last year clearing seaweed from the shoreline, money that had to be pulled from other parts of the municipal budget. And with the influx showing no signs of slowing down, Nuñez says the council is now exploring better equipment and quicker removal methods.

 

Wally Nunez, Mayor, San Pedro

“That has been one of our major challenges and we know that it is not only in San Pedro, I mean, not only in Belize. This is a regional issue affecting many countries in the Caribbean, even in the US. But it is something that we are definitely looking at. We are looking at obtaining more equipment to be able to take it out of the water. There is a lot of different business plans that people come up with. You probably are aware of the sarga blocks and all these different things that you can do with the sargassum afterwards. However, the main point for us is to take it out as soon as possible. It has been quite overwhelming, and it has cost a lot of money to the council, especially last year, that was one of our worst years. The council itself spent a lot of money in just beach cleanup, and that’s because we have been focusing mainly in the town port, which is roughly around a mile, and, you know, San Pedro is much more than a mile long of beach. And all these resorts have been tackling this issue, but there’s different approaches to it. And I know that the general public has been assisting. We have different resorts coming up with different, uh, methods of being able to to take out the sargassum. And the main thing is try to take it out as soon as possible so it doesn’t rot underwater.”

 

Paul Lopez

“What would you say is the estimated annual expense on tackling sargassum for the council?”

 

Wally Nunez

“Just for the council last year it was roughly over two million dollars. And that’s not because we, we have that money to be able to spend. That’s because we had to relocate our resources from other sections or other parts of our budget to be able to, to tackle the sargassum.”

 

Mayor Nuñez says several agencies and stakeholders, including the Belize Tourism Board, are providing equipment and support to help San Pedro address the difficult and ongoing sargassum problem.

 

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.

 

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