Courtenay: Port Loyola flood not my fault
Port Loyola residents may soon have to evacuate, that’s the verdict of the Ministry of Health. The area has been underwater for over a month and has become a major health risk to the community. The water has been tested positive for high levels of bacteria and the Ministry of the Health has advised the community to take precautionary measures to protect their health. There appears to be no plan of action to improve the situation and confusion as to what is causing the problem and who is responsible, reigns. On Thursday, the Ministry of Health sent out a strongly worded press release calling on those responsible to clear up the mess. The Ministry says they will have no choice but to ask residents to move out of the neighbourhood if the problem continues. This morning, News 5 Jacqueline Woods and cameraman, George Tillett went back into the community to get to the bottom of the story.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
Theories abound as to the cause of the flood, but there’s no disputing that the blockage of the sewerage pond’s outflow canal has been caused by the sixty-seven million dollar dredging project in the Port Loyola area. The canal, which allows the water to flow freely out to sea, was constructed by the former Water and Sewerage Authority to facilitate the sewerage dikes if they should overflow. However, dikes that were recently built to hold the silt that’s being dredged from the sea, have blocked the channel and trapped the water.
Lennox Clifford Sutherland, Former Road Works Inspector
“Negligence. I see neglect in this area because this creek was existing. You don’t build dams over creeks unless you are going to make electricity run, and limit it.”
Lennox Clifford Sutherland, who worked for the Ministry of Works as a road inspector, says he cannot believe the project has been allowed to continue without first trying to clear up the mess.
Lennox Clifford Sutherland
“This is the problem here and it should not have been, because we have a hundred and nineteen engineers and nobody seem to see it. But God is seeing that people are suffering and it’s they’re responsibility to take care of it.”
In a press release from the Ministry of Health, Errol Vanzie, the Director of Health Services has declared the flooding as an escalating public health emergency and calls on those responsible, namely the managers of the dredging project, and the Belize Water Services Limited to immediately remedy the situation.
Glen Tillett, P.R. Ministry of Health
“I think the problem is not the dredging per se, but the fact that where the material from the dredging is being stored in an area that has been diked. The dike themselves have blocked the channel that allows the outflow from the sewerage pond to reach the sea. As a result, the outflow blocks up in the low lying areas of Port Loyola, namely behind Faber’s Road and near Jane Usher Boulevard.”
Since News 5 has been on the story, we have made several attempts to speak with David Courtenay, whose company was contracted to construct the dikes, but to no avail.
Today, the Belize Water Services Limited say they are not responsible for the mess in Port Loyola. Peter Wrench, B.W.S.L’s Director, says once the water flows from the sewerage lagoon it goes through two main channels and into the sea. But because those channels have now been blocked, the water has nowhere to go but onto people’s lands.
Peter Wrench, Director, B.W.S.L.
“Well the sewerage lagoon here as been working for twenty years and there’s never been any flooding here. And now it’s quite evident, you can see this pond behind me that’s cut off the drainage, so there’s got be to flooding on this side, there’s no where for the water to go. I think if you ask the people around here, they will tell you there wasn’t a problem here before this pond was constructed”
The stagnated water is highly contaminated and as many as twenty families living along Faber’s Road, Jane Usher Boulevard, Louise Bevans and Curl Thompson Streets may have to evacuate. The move is one the Ministry of Health has recommended if nothing is done to address the problem. The ministry has been conducting a public health education programme in the area to protect residents from contagious, highly infectious and possibly fatal diseases like typhoid, cholera and hepatitis. Already one suspected case of hepatitis has been reported.
Glen Tillett
“We can’t impose a mandatory evacuation, but we could ask that the residents be mandatorily evacuated. At this point we’re asking about twenty families that are in the affected area to consider relocation for their health safety.”
Anthony “Boots” Martinez, UDP Std. Bearer, Port Loyola
“But I think that by now that these people should start to evacuate like yesterday. This situation is dangerous, and you will see people and children start getting sick bad. You will have major epidemic behind here. We just came out of a Hurricane Iris and then at the end of the day we’re heading to this? Mek we be real and mek we come out and assess the thing. This is not about red and blue, this is about people’s lives.”
Therese Neal is one of those residents who has been affected by the flood. Neal says she became ill one day after doing laundry.
Therese Neal, Resident
“It no clean at all. Anything drop…the other day my silver bangles dropped and when I picked it up it’s black, black, black. I use to go hang out clothes in the water. I upped and downed in there and all of a sudden my feet got swollen. I decided to go to the doctor and he thought that maybe I got it punctured, but I said no, it just hurt, so he put me on some antibiotics.”
Sources tell News 5 that a feasibility study on the project was not conducted, and that by the time Cabinet heard about it, the contract had already been signed. Furthermore, an Environmental Impact Assessment was only done after residents started to complain about the flood.
Glen Tillett
“We are asking that as further mitigation measures, landfill be provided to those families that have been affected, so as to cover the ground that was flooded.”
Tillett says as far as the Ministry of Health is aware some steps have already been taken to remedy the situation. The Ministry of Works will be assisting the project managers in clearing the channels to allow the water to flow out to the sea. Reporting for News 5, Jacqueline Woods.
Late this evening, David Courtenay denied that his company, CAD Construction Limited, was awarded any contract for any dredging project, much less the building of any dikes. According to Courtenay, they have built several canals in the affected areas to allow the water to drain. He says the dredging project was awarded to Jan De Nul Dredging Limited and Hydromar SAL Offshore Limited.
