Beach Rehabilitation Underway in San Pedro

The Sargassum onslaught over the years has left the communities it has impacted with less beach and more expenses, requiring the transportation of the smelly seagrass to dumping sites in remote areas of the town. But there is a collaboration between San Pedro Town Council and the Belize Rural South constituency office to replenish over a mile of eroded beachline, caused mainly by sargassum.

 

Andre Perez, Area Representative, Belize Rural South

“Indeed, the mayor and I, we had discussed about beach reclamation. We have been working to get on that one about extending the beach from Boca del Rio all the way and just reaching before Ramon’s. That’s just over a mile, but the reclamation – I don’t want to call it beach reclamation. I think the word that the person said is beach rehabilitation – I want to say because beach reclamation sounds rough, but it’s the same thing. The point is this: working together with the dredging company, making sure we get the clearance of the DOE – everything, Fisheries Department, Mining, everything. We want to extend it forty feet. It’s going to be starting soon. I was reaching out recently to the mayor on that one as well and he just expressed to me that they’re willing, ready to sign. I think the down payment needs to be made. We don’t know the figure as yet, but we need to work together. We are working with the company because dredging the sand to reclaim means that we have to work with them. It’s going to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to do that. So we have to collaborate with him also to provide sand that he can sell to other places that can do the refilling. And that is how he gets his money from the natural resources that we can offer. But we do it in an environmentally sound way that can be a win. I can tell you this: the support of the community says beach reclamation is a must. Climate change is real. Beach erosion is real.”