Belize’s Top Tourist Destinations Get Compactor Garbage Trucks

Five of Belize’s most popular tourist destinations today received compactor garbage trucks from the Belize Tourism Board to help them better manage their garbage collection efforts. The Minister of Tourism, Anthony Mahler handed over one of the units to Belmopan, Placencia, San Pedro, Caye Caulker and Hopkins. The ceremony took place in Belmopan, a city which itself has encountered problems with the only compactor truck they were using prior to today. News Five’s Marion Ali was present and filed this report.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

Tourism and clean destinations logically go together. If a city is dirty, it won’t be appealing to visitors. Today, the Belize Tourism Board endorsed that concept when it handed over new compactor garbage trucks to five of Belize’s top tourist destinations. Belmopan, being one of the recipients, is now able to better manage its garbage collection to meet a rapidly growing population. Mayor Pablo Cawich explained.

 

Pablo Cawich, Mayor, Belmopan
“As Belize continues to grow, maintaining clean, sustainable environments becomes increasingly important, not only for the health of our citizens but also to sustain the beauty of our country for residents and visitors alike. We understand that the critical role of tourism in our nation’s economy and keeping our cities clean is essential to making a positive impression on everyone who visits our beautiful country.”

 

San Pedro, Caye Caulker and Placencia, three of Belize’s most favored tourist destinations, also received one of the compactor trucks and the representatives who were on hand to receive them spoke about their usefulness in helping to keep their part of the Jewel appealing to visitors.

 

Andre Perez, Area Representative, Belize Rural South

“As everywhere in the country, you know, we do have a garbage problem, so it’s no secret about that. But the work that we’re doing, and working along with the Town Council and the Village Council, we’ve always had meetings and discussions about the problems of the garbage, which is always a problem and we have several meetings. Certainly these trucks, one for Caye Caulker, one for San Pedro, will be assisting a lot.”

 

Warren Garbutt, Chairman, Placencia Village
“The garbage truck that we have had been causing so much breaking down every minute. We were in desperate need of assistance with keeping our community clean for  the fact that the collection rates were low in Placencia, operating costs were very high, the trucks breaking down all the time, we could not continue using them, and because of this,  the poor sanitary conditions that our workers had to endure, we had no other choice but to  seek help to get a proper garbage disposal system and truck.”

 

Minister of Tourism, Anthony Mahler believes that along with marketing Belize is the important issue of managing garbage. He lamented on the lack of civic pride by some Belizeans.

Anthony Mahler, Minister of Tourism
“When we go out and sell Belize to the world it’s easy for us to talk about what we have. So I say you don’t have to go to Australia to experience great diving and reefs. You don’t have to go to Egypt to see temples. You don’t have to go anywhere. You don’t have to go to New York and any big metropolitan city to feel the different cultures. We have all of that and we have more caves, rivers, rainforest, etc., and the wealth of that is our people. But for some reason, we don’t have the civic pride that we should have as a nation. We just throw a piece of paper and we laugh and we tell the joke and I say this over and over that we go to Chetumal and hold the paper and then as you get back across to Corozal they throw it on the street and that must not continue.”

 

Marion Ali for News Five.