Manny H is Depressed and Disappointed with Events on Caye Caulker
Manuel Heredia Jr.
Belize Rural South Area Representative and Minister of Tourism, Manuel Heredia Junior also attended today’s press event in Caye Caulker where he took the opportunity to voice his discontent with the manner in which the crisis is being handled by both utility companies. While he admits that B.E.L. was slow on the draw in addressing the blackouts on the island, he says that he will be returning to Cabinet to lobby government to have both public-owned entities renew their focus on supporting the tourism sector which continues to be the primary pillar of economic growth.
Isani Cayetano
“This speaks to a developmental issue, however, whereas the island is growing faster than the utilities can keep up with them. As the Minister of Tourism, and of course the area representative, where do we go from here in terms of you perhaps lobbying for these utility companies to try to keep pace with the development on this particular island?”
Manuel Heredia Jr., Minister of Tourism
“Well definitely, as they said, they are working on a study and we are working on the national grid also for that underwater cable, submarine cable that will be coming into play within the next twelve to fifteen months. But in the mean time, you heard that they will be purchasing which would be here no more than in the next four weeks, meanwhile there is the other generator that they are bringing from Independence, and hopefully with the fourth one that they…, we hope that it would be sooner rather than later that they have it back and running and I believe that at that point, if we keep working together, if we keep the communication going, I believe that we can avoid a lot of these inconveniences.”
Isani Cayetano
“My final question then, how do we begin to calculate the losses here? I know the revenue that could have been generated during this time of year is tremendous and all of that is gone in water and light, so to speak.”
Manuel Heredia Jr.
“Yes, indeed. Because anything that is negative for the industry I will always sympathize with the industry because we work so hard. As the minister and my team, we work so hard marketing Belize, making sure that we can get more tourists and whenever a tourist arrives and they cannot get the services that they deserve, it really hurts us. And so I am a little depressed, disappointed with what happened, but that is water under the bridge. I am now working together with them and make sure that when I go back to Cabinet, I will bring it up to Cabinet to make sure that we can push the utility companies that they do as best as possible to keep up this industry, the number one backbone of this economy to keep growing. It makes no sense that we keep marketing to bring in more airlines, if we don’t have the proper infrastructure that they deserve. So yes, we be working with the different utilities, particularly in the tourism industry.”
