Pilot Project Launched in San Pedro and Caye Caulker to Tackle Erosion

After securing eleven cayes inside the Hol Chan Marine Reserve to strengthen long‑term marine protection, Area Representative Andre Perez is now turning his attention to another coastal concern, rolling out a pilot project in Caye Caulker and San Pedro aimed at tackling chronic flooding and shoreline erosion.

 

Andre Perez, Area Representative, Belize Rural South

“There is an area Called Bahia Puesta Del Sol in Caye Caulker. remember the teacher spoke about the water rising, the pump, forty-five thousand gallons of water, and the water rises. The entire Bahia Puesta Del Sol is an area that is like that. Presently the village council is using the regular sand that they dredge, precious sand, to cover the streets. And that doesn’t work. It’s washing away. In San Pedro, we have a quarry that we extract white marl, let’s do the maths. To bring a large load of hardcore from Felicity to San Pedro cost approximately twelve  to fourteen thousand to bring eight truckloads. That’s over there by Bahia Puesta Del Sol needs five hundred truckloads. So where do we get those funds? We’re talking about millions of dollars. Alright, so now you gotta do it smart. I had a very fruitful meeting with the village council. I explained to them the situation. We’ve been discussing it and we want to do a pilot project, which is already working. We are doing it. So what we’re doing is this, San Pedro has lots of beach erosion. There is the issue about beach rehabilitation that is going to be happening. There is also sand dunes being done scientifically by technical people to see how the beach claims itself back, but that’s a long term solution. There is also using artisanal fisher folks, artisanal judging that can be done with trash pumps and a portion of it can be done through judging machines in strategic areas environmentally safe. So putting all these together, it can work to get back the beach in San Pedro Town. Now part of that is to defray the cost, we want to bring material. Which is the hardcore we bringing from the quarries in San Pedro, it’s gonna cost us less for maybe a trek of twelve miles to bring it to Bahia Puesta Del Sol. But to defray the cost, when the barge goes back to look for the material in Caye Caulker, they will take sand from  here to put on the beach in San Pedro. So it’s a win-win. We’re trying to defray costs. And I explained to the council that this is the only way to go to save money. It’s still going to have a cost. But we are cutting this cost tremendously by two thirds and  we are gonna give a sample. We’re doing it, so we’re doing two barge loads to do a specific area of the sheets so that the community can see how it really works. So it’s not long term. We’re just doing two batch roads. It’s going to be sixteen loads of sand going to San Pedro, and sixteen loads of white power coming in to Caye Caulker for the streets. And then the council is going to decide where the want to put the material and then we can show showcase to the community that hardcore is more long term, efficient for the streets and then eventually they can put the sand on top of it.”

 

Perez says this pilot is just the first step, showing residents how a smarter mix of local materials and cost‑cutting logistics could finally deliver longer‑lasting fixes for both islands.