Statistics show environmental slippage
The fourth annual compilation of Belize’s environmental statistics was officially launched this morning…and major findings are signalling a dramatic increase in the amount of pollutants contaminating the country’s land, sea, and air. According to the experts:
In 1980, there were just twenty-seven thousand households in Belize…in the year 2000, that figure had risen to approximately fifty-one thousand family units. Cayo is the fastest growing district, while San Pedro and Belmopan are the municipalities with the highest rates of population change.
Not surprisingly, all those people are creating lots of garbage. In 1997, each person was calculated to produce two point one pounds of trash a day; in 2000 that figure went to three point four pounds, and the latest numbers show that in 2004 Belizeans were generating four point two pounds of garbage a day. As a country, every year we throw away eight hundred forty-six thousand pounds of paper and plastic bottles, one hundred and seven thousand tyres, and more than thirty-two thousand pounds of batteries. Major industries such as sugar and citrus contributed five hundred and twenty-nine thousand tons of solid waste in 2003 and some five billion gallons of waste water were treated that same year.
Another indicator is water use, which was estimated in 2003 to total two point six billion gallons…up from two point three billion in 1999. A breakdown reveals Belize City residents use the most water: thirty-two gallons per person each a day, while San Pedranos are a close second with thirty-one gallons, up from twenty-seven and twenty-nine gallons respectively in 1999. Benque Viejo residents use the least at fifteen gallons a day.
As for automobile generated pollutants, statisticians contend there has been a thirty-four percent rise in the number of licensed motor vehicles on the nation’s highways…with seventy-five percent of those vehicles gasoline driven, leading to significant increases in the emission of greenhouse and ozone depleting gases.
As for land use, forest cover, which measured seventy-nine percent in 1992, was down some ten percent in 1998. Only sixteen percent of Belize is classified as suitable for agriculture and almost half of that is already under cultivation, leading statisticians to project that in a quarter century there will be no more unused arable land. One of the largest land use increases occurred in the shrimp industry, which went from six farms in 1997 to thirteen in 2003, accounting for a five fold rise in acreage.
If those figures didn’t scare you, bear in mind that many of the statistics are at least a year old and in addition to huge data gaps, the numbers presented focus largely on urban areas. Experts assert that rural communities have a more direct effect on many of the country’s resources than urban populations.
According to Planning Coordinator at the Ministry of Environment Valdemar Andrade, the idea of the annual report is to improve on the government’s information base in the hope that reliable, easily accessible facts and figures will lead to sound policies and management of the country’s resources.
Valdemar Andrade, Planning Coord., Min. of Environment
?We want to encourage people to use this information. Of course, we have to look at how limited the information is and make guided decisions with respect to that data. We also want to say that this is by no means pointing the finger at anybody, but it?s simply being able to have the information to make those decisions on. To be able to pre-empt a disaster, to be able to pre-empt issues within the environment, to be able to look into the future and say this is what we will require if we are going to have tourism at this level, if we are going to be able to supply everybody with water, if we are going to have energy in 2010 to be able to supply to everybody as well. So we have to look at those issues and see what the trends are to be able to put in place also programmes to say, if we cannot provide that energy, then we have to put in place certain programmes that will tell people that they have to cut back, that they have to be careful with how they use water, to be careful with how they are impacting their own natural resource so that the future generations–their children–will have something to go on as well.?
This year’s Environmental Statistics Report is the product of collaboration between various government agencies, the United Nations Development Programme, the Protected Areas Conservation Trust, the N.G.O. community, and members of the private sector.
