Sargassum Threatens Health, Jobs and Coastal Communities

Belize may need as much as twenty million dollars to fight a seaweed crisis that is choking its coastline and threatening its tourism economy. Government is seeking financing from the World Bank after raising the issue at recent IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok. Prime Minister John Briceño says climate change is intensifying the sargassum problem across the Caribbean, while Tourism Minister Anthony Mahler warns that the impact has moved far beyond dirty beaches. Officials now consider it a growing health and economic emergency that demands urgent international support.

 

Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism

“All I can say, it’s about time that some serious interest is being put. I have been sounding the alarm for about five years. It’s not only an environmental crisis as we see it. Now it’s becoming a health crisis and an economic crisis because we’re losing tourism visitors. We’re losing our own domestic visitors not wanting to go to the offshore or the offshore communities or the coastal communities, I should say because it’s just not pleasant, right? And it looks and smell smut. And so now that you have this serious trust from the highest levels in government I welcome it. Like I said, it’s about time. And hopefully we can get some systems with the private sector, with the local communities, with the local governments to ensure that we can at least defend ourselves.”

 

Shane Williams

“Would $20 million make a difference?”

 

Anthony Mahler

“That’s just a start That’s just a start, no? And for equipment, for some of the equipment for maybe three or four major destinations. And so you have an operational cost, which we estimate somewhere about four or five hundred thousand dollars a year just to have these things running. But the equipment are expensive and eq- equipment take time to build because countries all in the region are being affected by sargassum are ordering these equipment. So we have to get in there now.”

 

Over seventy percent of tourism visitors to Belize book island and coastal destinations.

 

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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