Zetina Raises Alarm Over Large-Scale Dredging on Ambergris Caye

Tonight, the United Democratic Party’s Caretaker for Belize Rural South, Senator Gabriel Zetina is sounding the alarm over what he says are large scale dredging operations taking place across Ambergris Caye. According to Zetina, these operations are not only destroying the island’s rich tourism product, but also affecting the fisheries industry. He contends that whether these operations have received clearance or not, the municipal authority and the area representative must do better by putting the interest of residents on the island first. Here is what he told us.

 

Gabriel Zetina, UDP Caretaker, Belize Rural South

“It is the reality that we have been experiencing complete destruction and dredging at a large scale. At some point, like I mentioned didn’t he press conference, one has to ask if they are now dredging to sell that resource, because the land is already filled. An ultimately, it is the fishermen, the tour guides and the tourism product being affected. So its destruction man. Because, many of these places were once upon a time flats for fly fishing. We in the bay had tarpons and many other fish, famous for lobster traps because of the rocks. But today that is no longer the case, but many of these fishes don’t grow outside on the reef or out there in the deep waters. They grow out here in the mangroves, in the shallow waters and when they get to a certain size they go out. That is where the fishermen are being affected.”

 

Zetina Urges Review of Golf Cart Permits to Ease SP Traffic

 

We also asked Zetina about the longstanding traffic congestion in San Pedro Town and how he would propose to address it. Well, he said outrightly that some permits should be cancelled, asserting that individuals have already obtained permits without having a golf cart on the island yet. He called on Mayor Wally Nunez to do something about it.

 

Gabriel Zetina, UDP Caretaker, Belize Rural South

“We cannot shy away from the fact, and I don’t know if you guys have been tough with these questions for the mayor but when they were in opposition, they said let’s stop all these permit applications and we need to revisit them. He is in that position today and I can tell you that only the privy, that only they say they pay their way, I don’t have any proof of that, are getting tens of permits approved. That is not alleviating any traffic. So, we need to start cancelling some of these permits who are not active. Some of them have permits for granted and they don’t even have a golfcart on the island. They can’t tell me that is not happening.”

 

 

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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