Dust engulfs city during dry season
Back in the days when streets in Belize City and the district towns were unpaved, the dust somehow didn’t seem so bad… probably because there were much fewer vehicles. Today, however, we found at least one choking resident who says he’s ready to go to jail if that’s what it takes to put down the clouds that engulf his neighbourhood. Ann-Marie reports.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
Does this look familiar to you? It may not be to people who live on paved streets, but for those who live in the extension areas of the city, constant clouds of choking dust are an unfortunate fact of Belizean life.
This is a fast growing area of the city, Coral Groves. Home to the University Heights project with hundreds of residential lots and a new hospital under construction. It is also home to a dusty Durgeon Drive, which is used as a main thoroughfare for vehicles entering and exiting the Northern Highway.
Former mayor, turned area representative Jose Coye says he’s aware of the inconveniences residents face.
Jose Coye, Area Rep., Caribbean Shores
“I have made a plea to the City Council. I’ve spoken to the mayor myself, not to just come and wet the street when there’s a call from an area representative as I did myself, but to treat it as part of a routine programme to keep these streets wet until such time when the paving is completed. Now that is really the responsibility of the Belize City Council.”
And what is the mayor of the city saying?
Ann-Marie Williams
“The last time I saw the truck, particularly on weekends, around the University Heights project is like five weeks ago. I’m not sure if you know what’s going on…”
David Fonseca, Belize City Major
“Well I do get calls from people in the West Landivar area, in the Coral Groves area for wetting of the street which we do. But to what extent, if it is a detailed thing that is done, I’m not sure. I will have to check on it, but I do respond to calls that would come in, but we have a programme with our works department that that truck goes out on a daily basis to ensure that it gets all the streets. It’s possible that it’s not wetting all the streets, so we would definitely need to check on it and see what areas it’s covering.”
Jose Coye
“Those of us who live in this situation, having to, everyday, especially when you cannot afford to air-condition the homes, the problems that they go through, the health hazard itself, and the amount of cleaning that has to be done, the amount of dirt and dust that accumulates within that house, is very, very inconvenient and a serious health hazard.”
And a surefire way to avoid the serious health hazard is to pave the boulevard, a contract Coye says he’s warded to the Bella Vista Group, but not sure when they will begin.
Jose Coye
“I think the streets in the city, and certainly here in the Caribbean Shores, many of them are rudimentary streets or they are incomplete streets. In the dry weather, they are a health hazard with the dust and a serious nuisance, a great inconvenience to the people who live in the area. In the rainy season they become impassable by pedestrians and very difficult for vehicles. So the decision has been taken that, yes, this would need to be paved quickly.”
And there is one part of town that is not paving quick enough for one south side resident; Robert Mariano. The area around the Esso depot in Port Loyola is particularly hellish because of large numbers of big trucks.
Robert Mariano, Port Loyola Resident
“The amount of vehicles that pass here, especially yesterday and today…For two days the wind was blowing west and it was going towards the direction of Esso, that was the only two days that Esso got somebody to wet the ground, for two days. Now we are suffering for days and they couldn’t take it for two days.”
And for more than two days now Marion has taken his case to his area representative.
Robert Mariano
“Honourable Dolores Balderamos Garcia, had written them a letter about it, and so far, sometime this year in February I visited here and told her the situation was still the same. She rang them again and told them to please return back to her. So far we have never seen any improvements.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“What are the residents of the area who are suffering with you saying?”
Robert Mariano
“Everybody say that ‘Enough is enough’. They have reached to a point just like me that everybody said to try my best to see what we can do, even if we have to picket for the second instance. This is the first instance now. The second instance we will be picketing and the third instance we’ll try an apply whatsoever we can do to stop it, even if they have to take us to the prison, but something will be done because we are tired of being taken advantage of. These people consider us a slum in that area and because that it a slum area they can do whatever they want.”
Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
The activity of the city’s water trucks increased radically in the days after our reporter first began conducting interviews for this story.
