The Green Page - January 3, 2001

Publication: Daily Nation
Paper Page:15A
Paper Date: Wed, Jan 3, 2001
Byline: Compiled by Terry Ally

• Litter probe
• Beach rebound
• Diary of events this year

THERE HAVE BEEN complaints that certain Government departments are not pulling their weight to stamp out littering and illegal dumping and Ombudsman Carl Ince wants to know if it is true, and if so, why?

He said he received a written complaint that the departments were not doing what they could to stop the problem even though it was within their power. This could see him taking to the cart roads and gullies with officials of all the relative departments to investigate the matter, similar to what he did with the beach access issue last year.

"This is an important matter of national interest," he told the DAILY NATION. "Once I receive a complaint my first step is to enquire. I have to hear from the departments first, I seek their comments, they tell me what they are doing about the complaint. After the enquiry stage I decide whether there ought to be an investigation to see to what extent it is a matter of mal-administration, broadly defined."

Ince said the littering and dumping problem was similar to the issue of beach access which his office investigated last year, and he envisioned that it would be treated in the same manner. Though the Ombudsman did not name the departments that would assist with his investigation, the DAILY NATION understands that his probe would involve assistance from the Solid Waste Project Unit, the Sanitation Service Authority, the Environmental Health Division (polyclinics), the Environmental Engineering Division, the National Conservation Commission, and the Police Force. Over the last year there have been numerous complaints in the Press about littering and illegal dumping and many about the failure of the authorities to deal with the issues. When Greening Barbados was launched in February, it highlighted the magnitude of the litter problem when volunteers collected 60 tonnes of litter in a four-hour clean-up from the sides of major highways.

IT WAS THE centre of political controversy some weeks ago but since then nature has taken over and beach users are benefiting. The beaches north of Port St. Charles marina which were faced with severe periodic erosion are in their seasonal rebound.

"At this time of year a south-west tide is bringing back the sand," fisherman Errol Thomas said. "Around September, October the sand is taken away and then November, December the south-west tide brings it back," he said, pointing to tell-tale signs on the beach that bear out this fact.

The beaches here were so wide that there were homes constructed there but he said that since the Bridgetown Harbour was constructed erosion started setting in. It got worse each year until the sea undermined the homes and the families had to be relocated.

"The sea used to come over into the road and I remember that many times I had to move my moses from the beach."

Along the same beach another fisherman, Orson Simmons, said that in the 12 years he operated at Six Men's there had been periodic erosion and accretion of the beach.

"A few months ago most of the beaches started to erode but quite recently sand started to come back," said Simmons.

He said the Port St. Charles break water contributed to erosion at certain times of the year, especially during the hurricane season, whenever there was bad weather. In the last few weeks, the beach has widened by about 10 feet.