Minister of Sustainable Development Explains Use of Seabed

The question of whether permission has been granted to Portico for use of the seabed to construct a manmade peninsula was posed to the Minister of Sustainable Development earlier today. Clearance for such activity falls within the purview of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Mining, however, Minister Orlando Habet told us today that the idea is to use the material dredged from the seafloor to build the finger of land.

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development

Orlando Habet

“It’s not to create land on the seabed, but to use the seabed, really, to get the materials to create sort of what we term as sea reclamation so that they can build on it and then create the island or whatever it is that they are going to do.  I think all of the large projects such as this one will have the same request to do the dredging so that they can create the area where they will do their construction.  Really and truly, that is not under the purview of our ministry, it is under the Ministry of Natural Resources, so they have to get a mining permit.  And so, when NEAC meets, I think they have a representative from the Mining Unit and so the representative would have to come with that authority, certainly, to be able to make a decision or to make a recommendation to NEAC, within NEAC proper, so that then that recommendation can come to the Department of Environment.  If that person is absent for that meeting then I imagine that what we‘d have to do, the proper thing to do is to request a meeting with the people from mining or when they make their recommendation is saying, well, before you start any construction, you have to go to the Ministry of Natural Resources Mining Unit to get a permit from the Mining Unit to do any type of dredging.”