In a historic meeting on February twenty-sixth, between the Garifuna Language Commission, the Chief Executive Officer, as well as the Chief Education Officer in the Ministry of Education, approval was granted for the use of the Garifuna Language Curriculum in the teaching of the Garifuna Language in Schools Program. This approval comes after years of dedicated effort and collaboration between the National Garifuna Council and the Battle of the Drums Secretariat.
Sheena Zuniga, President, National Garifuna Council
“It has been a journey all in an effort to get to this point. The National Garifuna Council collaborated with the Battle of the Drums. We decided [that] we needed to be on the forefront to try to retrieve our Garifuna language which has been dying over the years. In an effort, we created the Garifuna Language Commission which includes Dr. Gwen Nunez-Gonzalez, Dr. Albarita Enriquez and Dativa Martinez. Those three women have been on the forefront to create the Garifuna curriculum that we have currently submitted to the Ministry of Education. Through that effort, we created the curriculum and we also applied for the professional development plan where we would be able to train Garifuna teachers in southern Belize to be able for those trainings to be part of their CPD hours. It‘s a real historic event for us because we have been working for the past three years to get to this juncture. We‘re glad that we would be able to have Garifuna language being taught in the six traditional Garifuna communities, starting in August and September of this coming year and we are hoping to launch this program in April in collaboration with our Garifuna Survival Day activities.”
The National Hydrological Service of Belize is seeking to secure a tri-national groundwater management collaboration with Mexico and Guatemala. Belize already holds such a partnership with the neighboring countries, but now aims to elevate the project in order to maintain its groundwater reserves. Today, a groundwater conference was held at the Belize Civic Center with representatives from various organizations to discuss the resource preservation. News Five’s Britney Gordon attended the event for more information.
Britney Gordon, reporting
In an effort to preserve Belize’s groundwater reserve, the Belize Hydrological Service held a workshop alongside partners at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and the Green Climate Fund. The workshop aims to secure international agreements with neighboring countries that will ensure the adequate management of water resources in the region. Tennielle Hendy, Principal Hydrologist at the National Hydrological Service, gave us some more information.
Tennielle Hendy
Tennielle Hendy, Principal Hydrologist, National Hydrological Service
“What we’re hosting today is an internationally shared aquifer resources management workshop. Belize has transborder watersheds. We have five. All of them we share with Guatemala, and one we share with both Guatemala and Mexico. We have a dependency ratio of thirteen percent which means that we rely on our neighboring countries for our water resources. So it’s critical for us to foster partnership, cooperation, collaboration to manage this very delicate and finite resource.”
Hendy explained that Belize holds several partnerships in order to manage the country’s water reserves and is on its way to securing collaborations that will provide a more in-depth monitoring system.
Tennielle Hendy
“So we have collaboration, both in country, and we have with our regional partners. So Belize has a by national water commission with Mexico, of which ConAgua, which is like their IWRM agency in Mexico that collaborates with us on several different actions. We’ve completed quite a number with them. We’ve done a water quality monitoring program on the Corozal Bay, the Rio Hondo, looking, at what’s the pollutants coming out of that system that we share. We have next up for us to establish a binational monitoring system with Mexico and Belize. So we’re looking forward to that. With Guatemala, we have water quality discussions through the joint OAS committee which fosters collaboration between us and Guatemala as well.”
In attendance at the event was a Science Sector Program Specialist at UNESCO, who shared what kind programs are being implemented by the organization when working with Belize.
Alibek Otambekov
Alibek Otambekov, Science Sector Program Specialist, UNESCO
“We have different programs that make a specific focus on the transboundary issues and one of them is Menin Biosphere, which advocates and promote the Biosphere Reserve and Geoparks, including transboundary Biosphere Reserve. There are about twenty-two Biosphere Reserves worldwide, which are serving across the different countries. And also there’s a program of intergovernmental hydrology program in the science sector, which serves the water issues related to climate change and to disaster risk reduction and this also bring our focus to Belize issue of the transboundary issues with with Mexico and Guatemala.”
Hendy stated that the main objective for this workshop is to secure another tri-country project with Mexico and Guatemala, which would allow for a more dynamic management system to be implemented in the countries.
Tennielle Hendy
“We’re hoping that we can get a tri-country project. We have one, which is where what’s what we’re presenting here today on the Yucatan Peninsula on the aquifer, and we’re looking forward to having more actions like this. But we want to upscale. We’re trying to pilot dynamic water resources assessment tool, which was said before, in the speech that is like your bank account. It’s like your water bank account. We need to know how much water is there. What can we take out? What do we need to leave for ecosystem services? What can we, I don’t want to say waste, but what can we, have not so much control over? But for that, we need groundwater information. We need to know the thickness of the aquifer. We need to know how much water is down there. What’s How long will it take to recharge that aquifer? Right now we’re operating on limited information and so we are trying to advance this knowledge, so we’re hoping that we get another project that will help us to delve deeper into getting the information we need so that we can create the water balance for Belize. If you’re off balance, you fall down. And we don’t want to do that.”
For months, changes in the appearance of the New River in Orange Walk have raised concerns regarding the health of the water and the living organisms within. Several assessments have been carried out in order to identify the issues and plans of implementing a new watershed management system are in the works. Tennielle Hendy, Principal Hydrologist at the National Hydrological Service, spoke about the situation.
Tennielle Hendy
Tennielle Hendy, Principal Hydrologist, National Hydrological Service
“I haven’t seen any gases being emitted, so that’s a good thing, but I can tell you that the issue that contributed to the new river situation is what I said, surface water and groundwater being linked. If we over abstract, we take water, we just waste it, it has an impact on our groundwater and the groundwater provides base flow, which keeps our rivers and streams alive. If we waste the water and we remove that outflow into that river system, then you will get all kinds of things happening. It’s a delicate balance. Flow provides mixing, oxygen, different, chemicals, natural processes within the river require that influence, requires that movement. The New River is basically flat, which means that it doesn’t have slopes, and slopes help us with mixing. When we are flat, we kind of stay a little bit stagnant, it takes a little bit longer time for things to travel. So there are multiple reasons. We are committed, along with the Department of the Environment, to doing a watershed management plan for the New River. So we’re looking forward to bringing to the table implementation plans such as these for funding in this conference.”
Residents of Toledo have been on the receiving end of several droughts and have struggled with adequate access to water for years. The National Hydrological Service is aiming to address these issues with the implementation of technology that will be able to locate groundwater reserves. Tennielle Hendy, Principal Hydrologist at the N.H.S. gave us more details on the situation.
Tennielle Hendy, Principal Hydrologist, National Hydrological Service
“The Toledo district experiences the highest rainfall, so the common assumption is that if you are getting a lot of water, you shouldn’t have water issues. Contrary, that is not the case. Um, just as though we have hills and valleys above the surface, we have hills and valleys below the surface. But if we don’t know where those hills and valleys are, we drill for wells. We either don’t find water at all, or we maybe find only twenty gallons per minute, which is not sufficient for one household, let alone two hundred people in a, in a village or a community. So that’s the crux of the matter in terms of the water scarcity we want to explore. It’s costly to explore but if we don’t find water, what do we do? We have to just try to find funds to do more, but we don’t want to be in a state of reactivity. We want to be proactive and so through the IDB, we are learning to use geo resistivity. And this type of technology allows us to put electrodes into the ground, and it allows us to see deep into the aquifer. Now, I must say, it cannot quantify, because we often see these new technologies and fill out, Oh, it’s going to tell us how much water is there. No, it’s just going to tell us whether there is presence of water there. So you need to physically do the investigations, which are very capital intensive. And so that’s one of the challenges that we face in exploring groundwater resources in the country.”
