Government Allocates Funds for the Work on the New River
Omar Figueroa
D.O.E. has additional long-term work in the months ahead. Deputy Chief Environmental Officer, Edgar Ek says that part of the plan includes further studies of the sediments that have sunk to the bottom of the river, including pesticides and heavy metals. That part of the plan has been presented to the Task Force. There is also the watershed management plan. Months of studies and work which has already been put in motion and according to Minister of State with responsibility for Environment, Doctor Omar Figueroa, funds have been allocated to finance the work.
Edgar Ek
Edgar Ek, Deputy Chief Environmental Officer, DOE
“We are developing the stakeholder engagement assessment. That’s what we are doing right now and that is the first phase to understand who all are involved and then from there we will start to do the planning session. There is also activities in terms of an assessment to look at land ownership along the river, the river area and also its ownership and the different types of activities that are happening. So, those are the building blocks of a larger activity which includes the development of the New River Watershed Management plan.”
Dr. Omar Figueroa, Minister of State with responsibility for Environment
“The task force right now, headed by the Department of the environment we are looking at this comprehensively and systematically. Now to your point of Ministry of Finance. I think we won’t have any problem in the country if every time we have a little challenge in this country we run to finance, finance gives us the money to solve it. I think we’ve put together the resources to tackle this problem right now. We have about I believe five hundred thousand dollars to look at it. We are looking at other sources of funding. I believe that we have the resources and that we are putting the team together to move this problem forward and I can tell you, I am almost, well, I am very confident that we will actually embark on a plan of action that will restore the integrity of that river with B.S.I. present, with Orange Walk Town present and with the agriculture component.”
