AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums Belize Life Living in Belize sick children in San Mateo

Have been for a loooong time.

The school septic system is an outrage and over 450 children use it. Last I heard , water was brought in and there was no running water. How do the kids wash their hands after using a toilet that flushes in to a backed up and flooded septic? Vern Wilson told the town that he would build a school that functioned as a hurricane building, bring septic and water to San Mateo, and in exchange he would get a building permit. Francis told me this, I am not spreading rumors. He has not fulfilled any of his agreements but has applied for more property and wants to dredge 22 acres.My major concern has always been the development of a biohazard. And now a child has died. I am actually having a hard time processing the information that this is happening, it seems so profound to me.

And just so sad

A child has died due to the unsantitary area around her home - she was not a student at the school.

Please don't confuse the issues. There are more than just one.

Yes there is a sanitation problem in San Mateo.

Yes the school could do with improvements.

Yes a child has died in San Mateo. Allegedly due to some water borne illness (autopsy pending.)

NEMO has stated that all coastal areas must be evacuted during Tropical storm threats - this means we will not be building hurricane shelters on the caye. No responsible government is going to build shelters and therefore encourage its people to stay in an area that can be severely impacted by a storm surge.

4 storey buildings on the caye have been granted before and will be again. No special promises would need to be made in order to secure the building permits.

The Holy Cross school came into existence due to the crises in lack of student spaces in other schools. The San Pedro Town council was desperate to find a solution, and along came the Wilson's with their promise to provide a school. The Town Council donated the land, and the Wilson's, in conjunction with the Anglican Archdiosese have achieved what they had set out to do.

Perhaps some kids from other schools have switched to an area closer to home, or because of the nutritious meals, or because there is a full time nurse on staff. That is their perogative. The Roman Catholic school is bursting at the seams and needed the relief any way.

I don't have the figures but considering I seem to observe about 5 babies + being born a week, and about 1 death each month - this town's population is continuing to grow at a very rapid rate. We need the school.

With all due respect I humbly say:

Asking for solutions doesn't mean write more words, experess your outrage louder and longer until you are hoarse, it means roll up your sleeves and help find ways to improve the situation - or please back off and let those that are working tirelessly to make improvements get on with it.

"Asking for solutions doesn't mean write more words, express your outrage louder and longer until you are hoarse, it means roll up your sleeves and help find ways to improve the situation - or please back off and let those that are working tirelessly to make improvements get on with it."
AMEN!!!

Scott Harnish, new prez of NAC NW , and all the other NW prez', meet with the town board every month. If you all think it might be helpful, I could ask him to find out what he can about that agreement. I did mention the problems of the homes built on water to NEMO when I was last at a meeting with them.I think there was a team that recently did a walk around San Mateo to see the conditions there and MAYBE find a solution but I don't know the details of who and what.The Belize Red Cross also did a study on the appalling conditions there, but did not offer any solutions except to appeal to the Town Board to relocate or do landfill and stick to not allowing dwellings to be built without proper waste utilities or water supply.

Amanda, I have great respect for you but do not agree with you in this matter. The Wilson's made promises regarding sewer and hurricane shelters according to Francis herself. I drove by daily and saw for myself issues regarding the sewer. Anyway, I have had my say and i am afraid no one will do a thing. The lagoon is disgusting especially around the school, go and check it out and ask some people who are at The Reef. Anyway, enough, have a great summer.

I hope someone will post the autopsy results when available. WAY scary. I would be on the lookout (and seriously boosting preventatives) for Cholera too with waste in the water. Not good. Overpopulation/undersanitation woes. You think it will harm tourism if the murder/crime rates get public, wait till this gets out...

BTW--this problem was there LONG before the Wilsons or the school were there.
Amanda is correct, at least 5 babies a week are being born in San Pedro, and roughly 1 death per month, plus the many who are moving in from other parts of Central America, most very poor. The poor have larger families than those well off . One solution I have been trying to assist with is offering free sterilization to those that cannot afford to pay for it.When we deliver a baby at the clinic of a mother who has had several children, we offer to do a tubal ligation at the cost of $500 bze.If she says she wants to do it but does not have the money to pay for it, we cover the cost from a fund I have been quietly getting pledges for.

I would be happy to give some to that fund. I will see you mid August