Scientists discuss future of Belize’s water resources
It is fitting that in the midst of a day of sometime torrential rain, a group of Belize’s top professionals met to discuss the subject of… water. Patrick Jones reports from the Radisson.
The two-day meeting brings together over twenty representatives of organizations that depend heavily on the country’s water resources. Acting Chief Meteorologist Justin Hulse says the two-fold objective is to allow participants to discuss common problems and agree on possible solutions.
Justin Hulse, Ag. Chief Meteorologist
“We wanted to come up with a national plan of action for the management of water in Belize and this will include all the water players, not only like W.A.S.A., and hydrology department at MET, the people making bottled water, people dealing with sanitation of water, the whole gambit for water. We just wanted to make a national plan for that.”
The plan, which is to be integrated into a larger regional initiative, will seek to ensure the sustainable use of current resources. Those resources, says Head of the Hydrology Section Dennis Gonguez, are still in fairly good shape, but it doesn’t mean we should get complacent.
Dennis Gonguez, Head, Hydrology Section
“Eventually there will be a heavier demand on our water resources as the years go by, so we have to have a management plan so that we can maintain this sustainability for future generations. If we don’t have any management plan, you would find that users will just abuse this water resource that we have and we won’t have that same quality and quantity of water available for future generations.”
But if the next generation of Belizeans is to make use of the country’s water resources, Senior Technician Rudolph Williams says some agricultural practices will have to change.
Rudolph Williams, Senior Technician, Hydrology Section
“The usage of water in Belize depends on the agricultural practices that we have in Belize. However, the watershed practices in most of the upland areas, the mountainous areas are contributing to increased run-off as opposed to the gradual run-off that we used to have in water and so the water is moving over land much quicker. We are interested in development and we need to be sustainable where food supply is concerned but we have to be careful in our agricultural practices, our land clearing and forest protection and this type of thing. We have to strike the medium somewhere in between where we drop back some of the agricultural outputs and benefits and we conserve as best as we can.”
While plans are being made to ensure that enough water is available to the nation, forecasters at the Belize Weather Bureau are keeping their collective fingers crossed and hoping that current weather conditions prevail. According to Hulse, the rains may be an inconvenience, but the alternative is much worse.
Justin Hulse
“For a long time Belize has not been getting its share of the rainfall. Now we’re getting our share and probably more. But the really important thing is, in October the development area for hurricanes is over the southwest Caribbean, but this rain we’ve been having is part of it. But it also means that the storms aren’t developing. So we’re just getting the rains without the house being blown down. And I think this is super.”
Patrick Jones for News Five.
Tomorrow’s discussions will focus on policy with regard to water management. In related news the Ministry of Works has announced that both the Boom/Hattieville Road and Coastal Road are closed until further notice due to flooding.
