Is the city sinking?
It’s not a new experience for Belizeans–in fact we report on the unusual tides almost every year at this time–but with the saltwater seeming to rise higher each season, is there reason for concern? Today I travelled the wet streets and wound up at the Weather Bureau.
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
The overflowing creeks, flooded streets and full-up drains are not the result of heavy downpours…in fact, rain has been scanty. So why all the high water? It’s a matter of unusually high tides–a phenomenon that occurs twice each year, in October and March.
Carlos Fuller, Chief Meteorologist
“This occurs primarily as the moon and the sun are the closest to the earth. Because it is the gravitational attraction of the sun and the moon and the earth that causes the water want to move towards the moon and the sun. So when these two things are in harmony, then there is a stronger force of the water trying to move towards these two objects. And the third thing that comes into play is that at the full moon every month, that is when you have the highest tide; it is called the spring tide. And so these three things are coming together at this stage, and in fact we should be seeing the highest tides on Friday the tenth of October.”
The rising water which has no where to go but on land, quickly covers low lying areas, especially in Belize City, which sits precariously near sea level.
Carlos Fuller
“So you will find certain streets for example, Foreshore, Marine Parade, the Barracks. Those places traditionally go underwater you know every time at this time of the year.”
Chief Meteorologist Carlos Fuller says they are not certain if the high tides are being helped by global warming, a rise in temperature around the world, which may be accelerating the melting of the polar icecaps. This would result in higher sea levels.
Carlos Fuller
“So indeed you have to go back and look at the tidal record to see if these tides are possibly a bit higher. And in fact, only a small change is going to mean a significant amount of more water on land, because Belize City and other places are so low in Belize. And the other factor you have to take in to play is the fact that in some parts the land is also subsiding. Belize City being built on a delta and the heavier traffic, more buildings you tend to see some subsidence, especially when you go along the Northern Highway, the road sinking, some houses sinking.”
Weather experts especially throughout the Caribbean have also been studying the unusual overall rise in the sea level, because of abnormal warm temperatures that are occurring across the globe.
Carlos Fuller
“Because of the enhance green house gasses that we are emitting-we are burning more gasoline, we are using more energy, so it emits more carbon dioxide. It is causing the atmosphere earth system to warm up. Two things them happen, because the water is warmer, water expands as the temperature rises, so the level of the sea will rise to deal with this expansion of the water and indeed the polar ice caps, the glaciers are melting, adding more water to the system. So the sea level we know is rising because of that.”
The factor is of great concern to low lying countries in the Caribbean. Fuller says the region’s weather experts have been studying the climate change to see what can be done to address the problem
Carlos Fuller
“Do we need to put in more sea walls, do we need to put in pump systems, dikes, to deal with it. Some countries actually have to evacuate. In the southwest pacific, some islands are in such serious condition that they have had to abandon some islands and move to other islands. So it is a major worldwide concern.”
Because of this climate change impact on the Caribbean, a regional centre has been established to monitor the changes and see what measures can be taken to adapt to the new situation. Belize not only won the bid to have the centre established here, but Fuller is its interim director.
Carlos Fuller
“This goes back to something like the early 1990s, 1994 in particular, when the ministers addressing the United Nations Small Island Development State Conference heard about the potential impact of climate change on the Caribbean, mandated the CARICOM Secretariat to prepare a project to adapt to climate change. We did that; we implemented this project from 1997 to 2001. However, we realised that one project alone could not deal with the problem and so we made a recommendation to the CARICOM Heads that a centre should be established to look at climate change holistically for the entire Caribbean. The Prime Ministers of CARICOM were so convinced that they mandated that a Caribbean Climate Change Centre be established.”
That centre will be headquartered in Belmopan