Port of Belize Files Major Expansion EIA

Port of Belize Limited opened a major new chapter in the country’s maritime development this week by formally submitting its Environmental and Social Impact Assessment to the Department of Environment. The six‑hundred‑page document lays out an ambitious plan to transform Belize’s principal port. It details a sweeping redevelopment: deeper navigation channels, expanded cargo berths, new shoreside cruise piers, and even the construction of an engineered mangrove island ecosystem offshore. According to the EIA, the project aims to modernize national trade, restore Belize City’s cruise competitiveness, and strengthen coastal resilience through nature‑based design. This morning, Minister of Sustainable Development Orlando Habet walked us through the next step, the public consultation process for the proposed expansion.

 

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development

“I think the consultation process is absolutely necessary because you will need the public to know what is happening in their side of the country. If it is in a city like in this case, then you would like to know that the City Council, the mayor is apprised of what is happening. Maybe, even the area representative for the area. And then, the residents of the area also, because many times it is the portion of that community that may be the ones impacted positively or negatively. The difficult portion is that a lot of the environmental portion is technical. The economic portion may not be technical, but you have to see how it will be economically advantageous for the country, or that community or town to have a project of this magnitude and importance. But also on the community side you want to make sure the residents, those adjacent to our close by will also be able to benefit from it socially. It must have a social component.”

 

GOB Revives Stalled Port Expansion Effort

 

If consultations over an Environmental Impact Assessment sound familiar, it’s because we’ve gone through this process before. When Waterloo controlled the port, it proposed the same cargo expansion and cruise port development project and invested millions of dollars before the effort collapsed. Now, with the Government of Belize as the sole owner of the Port of Belize, the question becomes: what’s different this time?

 

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development

“To make some clarification that the NEAC did not reject the first project. They were denied their environmental clearance because the developers did not provide the information that was requested from them to make a sound decision. So, with this next project, there might have some similarities. You really can’t escape from that. But I believe one of the major things this project also shows is that while the other was going to deposit a lot of material right nearby the shore that it would affect the environment in that particular area. This project has presented an option to create an artificial wetland where mangroves would be planted, promote biodiversity, shoreline protection and benefits for the community and even the maintenance or co-management can be taken up by an NG, a community based organization and also serve as a park where people can visit and children can see and even as a research and study area. So I think there are some difference in that regard.”

 

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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