Water Summit seeks to improve legislation
Today marked the end of Belize’s first Freshwater Summit. The session, attended by international experts and government officials, as well as interested students, aims at safeguarding our water resources. Freshwater Coordinator for the Fisheries Department, George Myvett, says there’s plenty of work ahead.
George Myvett, Freshwater Coordinator, Fisheries Dept.
“Obviously, one of the greatest challenges for us is constraint, both in terms of human resources and material resources, including financial constraints. And this is across the board… We believe that to steward responsibly a resource that is of national significance, there’s a need for coordinated management, there’s a need for the exchange of ideas, there’s a need to create mechanisms that would allow free flow of ideas and the integration of decision making.”
Legal Advisor in the Ministry of Natural Resources, Jose Cardona, says the ministry’s aim is to ensure that our unusually pristine environment stays that way so our grandchildren will take advantage of the same privileges that we now enjoy.
Jose Cardona, Legal Advisor, Min. of Natural Resources
“You could have a beautiful piece of legislation, you could have beautiful policies and we would not have achieved what we have right now. Because as you all know, in Belize you could go up to the rural areas and drink from the streams and you are sure that they are clean and you wouldn’t be poisoned. And it is bearing in mind that we have this protected, and keeping in mind that we have to continue the protection and continue the proper management of it is something we have to work on.”
“There are people out there who are keeping an eye out on things and we appreciate that, because then we get information that such and such is being done to the river, there is dredging or whatever, please look into this; and those complaints come to the ministry.”
Cardona says participants to the two-day session have agreed that a follow-up meeting is necessary in order to enhance the current legislation which seeks to protect our water resources.
