GOB’s Carrot on a stick for Placencia residentsLetter to the Editor, The Belize TimesDear Editor,
This is a letter to the people of the Placencia Peninsula. On Saturday 27th April, the Ministry of Local Government, and high ranking officials from the Ministry of Finance and BWSL descended in mass to the Placencia Basketball Court. The entourage easily numbered (including Security) 25-40 persons.
The “reason” behind the meeting, was to “Consult” the inhabitants of the Peninsula as to the implementation of the Peninsula Sewage System. This was a necessary step in the process of securing a US $5 million grant from the IDB.
The “goal” of the meeting was two-fold.
1) Complete this procedure and get back to the IDB before a June deadline, thus avoiding the very real possibility of “losing the grant money”
2) Get a “YES” vote from the Peninsula as to whether we want “a” sewage system or not.
Right off the bat, Minister Godwin Hulse asked the crowd if they want a sewer system, and he got a very weak, half-hearted “yes” from a few individuals. So, “Mission Accomplished” and within a few minutes, they were ready to call it a night and go home.
The reality of this is I believe that “YES” the people of the peninsula do in fact want a sewage system, but NOT THIS ONE with its crippling “Social Costs” attached. No alternative sewage plan has ever been presented, even though on numerous occasions, including last night, there has been requests for less costly, and less intrusive, more modern scenarios to be put on the table for review.
This has not happened, and will never happen, because the Government and BWSL don’t really give a damn about our welfare. They are after what the peninsula generates from the water system. The sewer system is only the “carrot on a stick” to get what they really want– The MONEY!!! OUR MONEY!!! The MONEY that has traditionally been put back to uplift our communities and the lives of its inhabitants.
Conspicuously absent from this process was a representative from the IDB, and, any form of official minutes or record of the contents of this meeting being taken. Both were very wise moves on the part of the Ministry and BWSL, because now they can go back to the IDB, and claim to have succeeded. The IDB needs to hear our voice!
I THEREFORE DECLARE THIS CONSULTATION TO BE NULL AND VOID!
Behold people! Our 21st century “DESPOTS” have become the present day “INVADERS OF THIS HERITAGE HOLD”. In the name of progress, and promise of a new sewer system, and better life, we will now have to bow down to a new version of what Minister Hulse referred to in decades past as the “Bucket Bembe’s”.
Signed,
Placencia Resident