“It’s a fellowship that started two years ago, and it was the brainchild of Climate Tracker and Open Society Foundations, our amazing partner, and what it does is we are a community is create an opportunity for young reporters in the Caribbean to tell climate justice stories. So climate justice, when you think of climate justice, you’re thinking of representing marginalized groups, groups that often go reported groups that don’t often get their voices told or their stories told. And so what we’ve done is create this opportunity where journalists in the Caribbean can go through a. Couple months of learning about different aspects of climate justice, whether it refers to what climate justice is on a whole, then also how the legal framework of climate justice for the region, how it reflects in gender justice, how it reflects in climate financing, how it reflects in energy justice, and all these different ways that climate justice is so pervasive across society. So that they can understand the pervasiveness of climate justice, how it impacts different areas of the region, and therefore be able to go in and tell the stories that need to be told. That’s what the fellowship is all about.”
Peggy the Loggerhead turtle is on her way to the U.S.A., and Belizeans are cheering her on in real-time. Peggy was tagged in 2023 by the environmental NGO, MarAlliance. She is one of three turtles, and the only female, currently being tracked and observed as they navigate through their migration period for mating season. Kirah Foreman Castillo, National Coordinator of MarAlliance, told us that tracking the movements and habits of these turtles plays a significant part in their preservation, as the research exposes challenges the animals face as they attempt to migrate.
Kirah Foreman Castillo
Kirah Foreman Castillo, National Coordinator, MarAlliance “So one of the things about sea turtles is that they tend to migrate across borders. They don’t, they tend to live in one area, they feed in another, they feed in that area and then when it comes to reproduction, to mating, they often leave. We know a lot about that turtles migrate between the Caribbean, within the Mesoamerican region where we’re located. But we weren’t quite sure what was going on with our population. Where are they going? We know that we have turtles coming from other regions, to nest on our shores, but what’s going on with the Belizean turtles, those that live and forage within our water. So we decided to undergo this like tagging program. At the moment we have three turtles tracking. First of all, we were kind of prioritizing males because we know a lot about females, but we didn’t know about males. So Peggy was kind of our lucky female to get a tag and glad that we did because we would have never had known that our females are not only our males are moving but our females are still going across borders. And one of our focuses to looking at the males is that we know a lot about where the females are going. Because they go to nesting beach, because of their life cycle, they have to go to their natal beach. So they need to, wherever they’re born, this is where they go back to when it comes to nesting. So more than likely Peggy was born somewhere, if she goes to the U.S., everybody’s guess so far is Florida. If she goes to Florida, whichever beach she lands on, this is where she was born, this is where she was hatched. As a hatchling and then they go off into their adult habitat where they live and where they feed, which we know is Belize, and the females will go back to their natal beach. That is very important for us to note when it comes to management of the sea turtles, because oftentimes we have a lot of development occurring. You can imagine getting back to your beach now and you have a seawall. And this is where you have to go and nest, you know, and then you’re not able to access that beach. So, either they find another suitable site, or a lot of times they’ll just discard the eggs into the water because they cannot access their nesting beaches. So it takes about twenty years for a female to return back. We know that Peggy is an adult. She is at reproductive age. She’s probably already over fifty because of her size but it takes about twenty years for them to become reproductive.”
The total solar eclipse that occurred today in some parts of Mexico, the U.S., and Canada was only a partial one in most other countries. In Belize, for those who tried to capture the event, it was a mere forty percent blockage of the sun by the moon. But your efforts might have been in vain, depending on where you were, because some parts of the country were cloudy just as the eclipse was occurring around eleven-eighteen this morning. Chief Meteorologist, Ronald Gordon said the sky did get dark, but cloud cover was an issue to contend with.
Ronald Gordon
Ronald Gordon, Chief Meteorologist, National Meteorological Service
“I certainly don’t have the specialized equipment to go there and look at the sun. So I did not do that. But I want to say that, from my own observation, it got a bit darker. I think it wasn’t that significant that I had predicted, or as we had mentioned, I believe before that it was a 40 percent occlusion for this particular eclipse, a partial eclipse. So we didn’t expect it to even be as dark as the one that we had in October last year, which had more. Obstruction or occlusion, so certainly it wasn’t as dark as that 1 and I think unfortunately for residents in my area. I don’t know about where. The entire country, but certainly in Belize today, even with a little area, it was a bit cloudy. So certainly if you had the. The specialized sunglasses to go there and look at it, it may have been a bit disappointing because for the most part, it was a bit cloudy.”
A common practice you may have noticed is people removing excess gravel from roads that have been recently paved. This gravel is typically what’s left after a road project is completed and will likely be disposed of by the contractors working on the road. With that in mind, some take it upon themselves to remove the gravel and use it for their own purposes. If done correctly, this practice is typically well received and sometimes encouraged. However, we spoke with civil engineer Michelan Gilharry in the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, who encourages the public to exhibit patience before removing the gravel. Here’s what he had to say.
Michelan Gilharry, Civil Engineer
“What we would ask the people to do is to wait for us to give them the go ahead, because what happened is, yes, there is some excess material and it, in a way, positively helps the contractor to clean up, in a sense, because they would still need to do it. But once we have placed the first layer, then we wait another thirty days to put the second layer. And then after that, we need proper embedment. If they go and take it beforehand, then they can damage the edge of the road. But if they wait as what we want, and after we have swept it and it’s all the way to the edge, or like to the embankment of the road, then it doesn’t typically affect the road structure. But so that’s what I would comment on saying that we just want patience. They will still be able to get the material is beneficial to the community members, just let’s wait, get the go ahead from the contractors in my project, we do speak with the people shoveling the gravel. We explained to them and most of the time they’re very understanding. They know they wait and then afterwards they would come on, pick up the material and use it for whatever purpose they have.”
Residents of the Corozal District are saying goodbye to the Laguna Seca and Pueblo Nuevo ferries and hello to two new bridges. Just before the Easter break, the Ministry of Infrastructure Development and Housing opened the Laguna Seca Bridge, which is expected to provide easier access to Sarteneja, Chunox, and other villages in the area. Some minor works are still pending before the bridge is fully completed. The Pueblo Nuevo Bridge is expected to be completed later this year. We spoke with Project Engineer, Michelan Gilharry.
Michelan Gilharry
Michelan Gilharry, Project Engineer “So I got to open the Laguna Seca bridge last week, Wednesday level of meaning that it only has the first layer of DBSD. It takes two. But like I said, the idea was to have it open before the Easter break, right? So we managed to accomplish that. So the commuters have a easier flow of traffic rather than waiting on the ferry. That bridge in length is a hundred meters, excluding the thirty-meter approaches which was done with MSE panels. The height of that bridge is about twelve meters in height. So that’s the description that I would like to give on the bridge. It’s about ninety to ninety-five percent completed. We still remain to do the guardrails and some erosion control features, line marking on the bridge itself. But it’s substantially complete. The second bridge is called Pueblo Nuevo. That’s still under construction at this time. We intend to have that completed by no later than September of this year. Because this project is a design and build project, technically, it has taken like over two and a half years. Because what was focused at the onset of this project was building of a portion of the road that was initially designed. Because of the scope or the nature of this contract, the contractor wasn’t technically obliged to start the bridge at the same time. It was until the design was completed. The design is approved, then they were able to start this bridge and that’s the reason we have a slight delay with respect to the other bridge, because It took us a long time to finalize, fine tune the details of the bridge and the cost, since the contract already had a numeration with it, and we now had to go back and design a bridge based on a figure that was already provided. So it was a challenge, but we anticipate that since the contract is not going to expire until July, the bridge is still done in a timely fashion. Now the one in Pueblo Nuevo, we may need to seek some additional time to have it completed by when I stated in September.”
The installation of the Laguna Seca and Pueblo Nuevo bridges in Corozal allows for easier access to the surrounding areas, providing a more efficient route for more commuters. While the opening of the Laguna Seca Bridge was received positively by residents, some noted that the feeling was bittersweet as they said goodbye to the ferry that has served them for many years. Project Engineer Michelan Gilharry told us what now happens to the ferry.
Michelan Gilharry, Project Engineer
“So the area that the bridge is located is between the Chunox area of the Corozal district. The importance of it is because this acted as a bypass in the sense that you didn’t have to go around through the Progresso village to reach all the way to Sarteneja for the Corozal town area, it’s a shorter route. Yes, we know it’s a bit of a bittersweet moment in that sense with the ferry, but I’m sure that everybody is relieved in a sense that their time is being reduced with respect to the road. They have a free flow and that’s the intention of the project. What the ministry has intention with the ferry, I believe we will try to salvage it and reuse it in other lake locations that it may be needed. So that’s the intention. So we’re still putting it to use.”
Residents of Bullet Tree Village in the Cayo District say they have been having water issues for quite some time. They say that they have no idea what to do as they have had limited to no access to potable water for over a month. One resident, Dale Holder, told News Five that the village might be facing this problem due to development and population expansion. He says that the village is supplied with water through a pump that is connected to a reserve. Holder says he has been without water for the past two weeks.
Dale Holder
Dale Holder, Resident, Bullet Tree Village “We’ve had water issues ever since I’ve moved here. That’s just normal. I found in Belize. And, you know, the whole area has water issues. But they have developed a new area here next to the village, the government has, and they expanded. So before they did the expansion, they put new system up on the hill, put new tanks and everything. And since they’re developing the other areas around here, the people here have lost some of the water supply. And I hear different things about they don’t have a pump big enough to pump now. And I tried to catch up with the local chairman. And I finally called, caught up with him later this afternoon, just around noon and he said he would meet with me. Because I’m trying to find out from him and secondhand, I’ve never been able to catch up on him and return my calls for some reason, but the new area, there’s quite a few people. I don’t know how many is over in that area now, five hundred to one thousand people. And the very first part of the new area is getting water from what I understand. And other than that, they aren’t getting any water. We lucked out the first night, must have been Saturday night. We got about fifty gallons of water. But I stayed up all night to get that and to haul it up. But, you know, we are getting some. There’s other people that aren’t getting any. We are getting some now. I’ve been able to pump up a few times to the storage tank. The other people in the village don’t have access to an additional pump or anything, and they don’t have no water. It’s dry right now, a lot of them collect water, and they have water for a haul, but the area person here does a lot of the hauling water. He’s broke solid, he couldn’t even get to me because I needed water and we were out. And so it’s becoming a problem for the local people that we can’t get water. Unless they can go to, you know, the river and get it themselves and bring it back.”
Two friends lost their lives in a drowning incident on Easter Sunday. Esau Castillo and Eduardo Martinez were reportedly socialising at the riverbank near the Iguana Creek Bridge. Sometime during their visit there, they decided to go for a swim in the river. But the two men never made it out of the water alive. News Five’s Marion Ali has the story.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Two friends, Esau Castillo from La Gracia Village and Eduardo Martinez from Melchor de Mencos, Guatemala died while swimming together on Easter Sunday. The men were reportedly swimming in a race against each other when their outing quickly turned into a nightmare in the river near the Iguana Creek Bridge, Cayo. Despite efforts by the Spanish Lookout Fire Rescue team, it was too late to save them on Easter Sunday evening. Peter Friessen lives near the area where the incident happened.
Peter Friessen
Peter Friessen, Resident, Iguana Creek “I live close to the bridge and I noticed the ambulance and the fire truck went to the river, so with my own interest I went there to see what happened. Apparently, friends were at the river and two guys decided to do a little race with the swimming. They never made it to their destination where racing to.”
According to Friessen, it didn’t take very long to recover the first victim’s body, but the search for the other one took a bit longer.
Peter Friessen
“As I reached there they had found one body already and took him out and they were searching for the second and within an hour they found the second one and Spanish to go with rescue team were out there to look at it and they had used a drone To look into the water and that’s where they find the second body In the river, so they were taken out as well before dark.”
Elisandro Paz knew both men who died. Castillo was his employee and the other, came by once a week. But the day they died, he saw them minutes earlier.
Voice of: Elisandro Paz
Voice of: Elisandro Paz, Employer of Esau Castillo
“I saw maybe 15, 20 minutes before that happened when I was in the river I do my barbecue there and, after that I was playing with my kids in the water. A few minutes I was in the water, they – somebody called me that the guys come down there and they come down in the river. I walked down there and we didn’t see nobody. Yeah.”
Marion Ali
“You had him working on your house, which means now that that work has stopped.”
Voice of: Elisandro Paz
“Yeah. Right now everything stop soh yeah, we feel so bad that happened, noh.”
Friessen and Paz lament that, from time to time lives are lost at the location. They hope that this tragedy serves as a sombre reminder of the dangers that can lurk beneath the surface.
Voice of: Elisandro Paz
“Especially how it’s hot I think most of the people want to swim a little bit, noh but yeah, I say they nuh take care because that was deep there. 02:16
Peter Friessen
“Every once in a while it happens, but people go a lot to the river to take a swim when it’s hot. I think it’s always good to take advice if people advise them not to swim. And watch the water and – but it’s a good thing to learn to swim from young.”
Last Wednesday, a fire at the corner of Pickstock Street and Lovely Lane erupted around seven-forty-five p.m. destroying the home of twenty-eight-year-old Alicia Rancharan. Rancharan, her three children, and her partner were fortunately unharmed by the flames but are still in need of assistance. News Five’s Britney Gordon spoke with the mother of three today for the full story.
Britney Gordon, reporting
While many people spent the long weekend relaxing with friends or family, Alicia Rancharan and her family were processing the loss of all their possessions and the roof over their heads. In just a matter of hours, the place they had called home for the past five years was consumed by a fire that erupted late Wednesday evening. Rancharan said that she was not at home at the time of the fire due to a recent death in the family and got the call while at the repass.
Alicia Rancharan
Alicia Rancharan, Fire Victim
“After they had a repass, I went by, sat down with my family, my friends. While we were sitting down, someone called my mom, stated that, hey, Alicia’s house is on fire. Someone who was at the funeral with us offered me a ride home. Upon reaching to the home, where I call home, I saw my house completely engulfed in fire. I was just panicking. I did not know what to do. I started crying.”
Rancharan explained that her partner had stepped out to purchase food for the family moments before the fire and that it was her seven-year-old daughter that saved the other children.
Alicia Rancharan
“I was my three kids and my gentleman. However, he had completed a day’s work. So he decided to step out to go and get something for them to eat that night. Just less than fifty yards away. He went to buy. he said that someone came to him and tell him to go back home. When he reached back home, he saw the fire. My kids was inside. My seven-year-old girl, my four-year-old son, and my other baby girl, who’s one year old. My daughter stated that she peeped out and she saw the smoke show. She had no other option but to grab her brother and sister and take them outside. My son, not knowing what is happening, he decided to just go back inside to continue watching TV and she yelled at him. Hey, there’s a fire, we need to get out. She dragged him by the arm, took him downstairs and by the time my gentleman reached back from shop, they was already downstairs safe, thank God.”
An investigation by the Belize National Fire Service revealed that the fire started on the ground floor after a makeshift stove was tipped over by one of the building’s tenants.
Alicia Rancharan
“The neighbor, Mister Elodorio, better known as Dolo, he lives downstairs. He does not have any current. So he was I think making a lamp. hey stated that it tipped over. He did not yell for help until the whole bathroom was already engulfed in flames and the Monday before this incident took place, I saw him lighting that stuff in the pan. And I spoke to him and I said, hey, you Dolo you don’t need to be lighting that I have two lamps from the previous hurricane that I could lend you He was like, uh, no, it’s okay.”
She said that she is grateful that her family all escaped the fire safely. However, as all their possessions were lost to the flames, they are struggling to get back on their feet and are in need of assistance to do so.
Alicia Rancharan
“This took me over never thought that this would be me. I’ve seen many incidents where people are displaced by a fire. I never thought that I would have end up in this situation, but it could have been worse. I thank the Lord that my kids are safe. I rather losing materialistic items than being lost the life of any one of my kids. Everything I lost. I recently borrowed a loan from Belize Bank to finish completing my home. I recently purchased new brand sofa, refrigerator, microwave, washing machine. Everything I lost. The only thing that I was left with was that black and white clothing I had on for a funeral. My kids lost everything, their toys, their bicycles, all their footwears, everything. So, I’m just pleading to the public to render some assistance. I know that there’s still good people out there. I’m asking from the depths of my heart to help them, try and assist, whether it be food items, clothing, household, finance wise. Anything will be greatly appreciated.”
