Friendly country will help finance water purchase

And while the B.T.L. saga might be winding down, another is just getting interesting. Following Government’s announcement last week that it will reacquire control of the country’s monopoly water provider, this afternoon Smith elaborated on the agreement that has been signed between G.O.B. and Cascal, majority owner of Belize Water Services Limited.

Godfrey Smith
“The Government of Belize and Cascal signed the agreement last week Friday. There is a clause, clause seven point one in that agreement that calls on both sides to not make any public statements…until the matter is finally resolved. You know that, in the press release that went out last week we spoke about some time in October, I believe the date is October third, there being first payments and so on. Obviously what we can say is that we think it’s a good move. As the chairman of the party the attorney general will tell you, some time in February at the massive national convention our party had, the supporters of our party tabled a resolution on the floor of the convention hall, calling for re-Belizeanization of the water company. It was a resolution the government took seriously because of all that was happening at that time. So we think that the mood of the people, we think that the Belizean people are supportive of that effort. We think it will inure to the benefit of all Belizeans.”

Janelle Chanona
“But this move wasn’t initiated by the government, was it?”

Godfrey Smith
“Well, yes, it was initiated by the government. There had been, as you are aware, negotiations, disputes over it and while it had been raised back and forth, no clear and firm effort had been made prior to February. And after that we thought about it seriously and raised it at the negotiating table.”

According to Smith, funds for the acquisition of B.W.S. will be accessed through the support of friendly countries. Belize will make a down payment of fourteen point nine million U.S. dollars in early October.