Students take part in coastal cleanup
Many of us can remember those days of the not-so-distant past, when the Haulover Creek was little more than an open sewer and the waters around Belize City were full of floating garbage. And while few would deny that the old capital has cleaned up its act, there’s still a long way to go. One group which has been monitoring the state of cleanliness along the city’s coast held its annual survey over the weekend. News Five’s Patrick Jones was among the beachcombers.
For a Saturday morning, the B.T.L. Park was unusually crowded; but the set of young people were not out for a weekend barbecue.
Anthony Malic, Eco-Scouting Commissioner
“It’s to create awareness of the importance of protecting our marine area, marine life because, we’ve been trying to follow up the progress that debris, marine debris, has been taking; the patterns that its been taking along the Caribbean currents that comes back into our shoreline to see if we have foreign debris coming into Belize’s coastal areas.”
For the seventh year running, the Scouts Association of Belize spearheaded the local participation in the international coastal cleanup campaign. And the participants had a pretty good idea of why they were spending their Saturday morning with garbage bags in their hands.
Gerald Jones, Police Youth Corps
“For the tourism; we have to cleanup campaign because Belize look good right, and we need to clean it up, for the tourism attraction to Belize.”
Ryan Barnett, Fourth Belize Wesley Cubs Scout
“Clean up the city and make it clean, and the environment.”
Trenton Green, SCOPE, U.C.B.
“This is the second year we’re taking part in it and it’s just the right thing to do.”
Rondine Pitts, Four Science, St. Catherine’s Academy
“We’re just supposed to record all the things that we collected like plastics, foam, glass, rubber and then we will make a comparison to last year’s event.”
That analysis is done at the Center for Marine Conservation in Washington, where the information, recorded on special data cards, is sent.
Patrick Jones
“Today’s activity is not necessarily an exercise to see how much garbage can be collected in one day, but rather to give an indication of how bad the problem of marine pollution is in Belize.”
Anthony Malic
“I’ve noticed the trend that every year we’re getting less and less debris to pick up and the participants are getting more numerous. So no, I don’t suspect that we’re going to have more than last year.”
Rondine Pitts
“Well we found mostly like public stuff like wrappers, straws, soda bottles, bottle caps, boxes, cartons, things like that. It seems like people are dropping on the side of the coast because most of the straws and stuff were found on this side. Other stuff found on this side were like cloth and I think it’s from the shore; I don’t think it’s from the sea.”
While early indications are that the problem of water borne debris is still negligible, leader of U.C.B.’s environmental group Trenton Green believes that its never too early to take corrective measures.
Trenton Green
“The message is that if we all get together, we can make the earth a better place or make this planet a better place to live and less pollution and everything else.”
Rondine Pitts
“For Belizeans I would just like to say that they should put trash in their proper place, because it just kills the environment because some animals get killed and stuff by plastic every year. And you know we need to have our eco-system balanced and Belize is known for its natural beauty. And if we have it littered and stuff, people won’t want to come; they will say it’s just like where they are from, all dirty.”
Patrick Jones
“It sounds like pretty good advice to me and since we’re all stakeholders in the protection and preservation of a clean and healthy environment, it wouldn’t hurt to take her advice very seriously. Patrick Jones for News Five.”
Information from around the world will be collected in Washington and a report should be sent back to all the participating countries within two months.
