Coast Guard breaks ground on new forward base
As cayes go, they don’t get much nicer than Calabash. But while its beauty is worthy of a spread in National Geographic, the buildings going up on its white sand beaches are not part of any five star resort. News Five’s Janelle Chanona has the story.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This morning, official ground breaking ceremonies took place on Calabash Caye on the site of what will be a forward operational base for the Belize National Coast Guard.
Brigadier General Cedric Borland, Commandant, Belize Coast Guard
“This put us in a central area in front of Belize City. It gives us an equi-distance down south and up north and so from here we are able to respond with minimum time.”
Calabash Caye is located twenty-four nautical miles south east of Belize City, on the eastern side of the Turneffe Islands Atoll. According to Commandant of the Belize Coast Guard, that’s a prime position to counter illegal activity.
Brigadier General Cedric Borland
“We’ve had information and reports of suspected vessels moving fast in this area. This location here will put us right into what we consider the transit area for drug trafficking. And we’ll be able then to respond immediately to any call, or any suspected vessel moving in here. As a matter of fact, we will be actively patrolling this area with this new base at this location.”
The three storey, three thousand square foot facility, which will be built on fourteen acres of land owned by the Coast Guard, was designed by Chief Engineer Cadet Henderson and includes a main building, maintenance area and sea and lagoon docks. Estimated to cost two million dollars, financial support for the project was secured from the United States State Department through the Southern Command.
Leonard Hill, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy
“You don’t want the country to become known as a major transit point for illegal activities, hence the need to develop an ability to assert sovereignty over your waters and to make sure people aren’t doing illegal things whether it is environmental harm to the reef, could be smuggling of various types…there are all sorts of reasons that a nation wants to be able to be sovereign in its own territory.”
And the Calabash base could very well become what Hawaii is to the U.S. Navy. The site sits on a pristine beach with crystal clear waters. From the pier, we spotted this flounder blending in. Further inland also proved interesting as scattered across the proposed building site are hundreds of pottery shards fashioned by our Mayan ancestors centuries ago.
And as neighbours, the Coast Guard will be able to call on the students and professors working at the University of Belize Marine Field Station.
The initial plan is to station two vessels and a joint team made up of sixteen men and women from the Coast Guard, the Police Department and the Belize Defence Force at Calabash.
Construction on the base will start this month by contractor John Usher of Dangriga who will receive technical support from the Ministry of Works. And to ensure the buildings meet U.S. standards, visiting engineers will supervise the project.
Chris Reich, State Department Engineering Consultant
“The difficulty is location of course. I think anyone that does construction, talking to contractors, logistically to bring materials and people and keep them out here for long periods of time, it has its challenges. But we have an outstanding contractor, Mr. John Usher, and I know he’ll do a great job for us.”
Janelle Chanona
“Officials are already planning another media visit for July 2008 when the Belize Coast Guard’s Operational base on Calabash Caye will be opened. Reporting from the Turneffe Atoll, I am Janelle Chanona for News Five.”
According to the Coast Guard, there are also plans to erect similar facilities on Northern Ambergris Caye and at the Big Creek Port to increase safety and security in those areas. Other projects in the works include the construction of the Coast Guard’s main headquarters at the old Belizean Beach site at mile four on the Western Highway and the acquisition of a large patrol craft for use in Belize’s Exclusive Economic Zone in the south.
