Government Strategizing how to Tackle National Sargassum Crisis

Belize must act quickly to counteract the mounting sargassum crisis that has been plaguing the nation for months. On Wednesday, we told you about the thousands of dollars businesses along the coast that have been pouring into beach cleanup efforts daily. The sargassum has also been negatively impacting the health of residents and employees working in these areas. According to Minister of Tourism, Anthony Maher, it’s something the government cannot ignore. He told us more about the steps Belize is taking to find a solution quickly.

 

Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism

“Just for perspective, sargassum this year has surpassed any other year in history. Whether you compare it to 2014, when I say it was a very high year, or 2022, it’s 70% more than those years. So, it’s tremendous amount of work. It takes time. It takes money, and we just got to keep fighting it. Now, what we’ve done is taken our paper to cabinet a few weeks ago, and we have accessed some funds and so we’re pushing that out to work with the private sector, with the local authorities, and we’re raising some additional funds to be able to fight it off. All we can do is rope-a-dope and do our best in terms of cleaning up. Especially as we go into the higher parts of the season.”

 

Reporter

“Have you gotten any report from the hotel industry that it’s affecting stays?”

 

Anthony Mahler

“I mean, it will, but we don’t see that in the numbers overall. The quality of life that, people who work in the industry have to go through. In fact, you hear about equipment and TVs, remote, all of these things being destroyed because of sargassum. So  it’s a real issue for countries like Belize who focus us on eco adventure tourism, it’s an issue. It’s a real visual that climate change is real. And the scientists have told me the bulk of it is as a, a result of the pollution that is happening between, Guyana and Brazil. And that has triggered off this level of sargassum.”