Coastal Livelihoods Threatened by Relentless Sargassum

The sargassum crisis is tightening its grip on southern Belize, and residents and business owners say government’s response is falling short. The thick seaweed continues to wash ashore, threatening coastal communities, tourism activity and livelihoods, but Sustainable Development Minister Orlando Habet admits there is still no permanent solution in sight. He says Belize is not alone, as countries across the region are struggling to contain the growing influx. With frustration mounting at home, Habet says the government continues to engage regional partners in hopes of finding a long-term solution to a problem that refuses to go away.

 

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development

“ I believe that anybody will say that not enough attention is being given. There is no final solution for sargassum, not in Mexico, not in the Dominican Republic, not in Barbados, not in Belize, nowhere. We are all trying to see what works best, and we are trying to see what we can adopt from what Mexico has done that they say works for them. They have the most information. They have done the most work, have spent the most money on sargassum. But all that they are doing is collecting the sargassum, and now they have advanced to processing it to make certain products that can possibly bring back some revenues to pay for the cost of cleaning up the shore. But it is continuous. It’s continuous today. It’ll continue for years to come unless we can really find somebody or some organization that can do something. But Belize is doing its part. We need more intervention from the private sector. Government is doing its part. The Ministry of Tourism is coming up with a project where we will be getting some equipment to do a lot more cleanup soon.”

 

The government is exploring a UN-funded project to turn sargassum into energy, reducing its impact while putting the seaweed to productive use.

 

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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