San Pedro Residents Respond to DOE Official

On Wednesday, Chief Environmental Officer Anthony Mai stated that there is no dredging happening for the Cayo Rosario project, located on an island near San Pedro. This project, which has been in the works for several years, is controversial because it’s situated within the Hol Chan Marine Reserve. Mai confirmed that the project has received all necessary environmental clearances so far. He also mentioned that if the developer wants to dredge, they can go ahead since the project has met all requirements. However, today, tour guide Oscar Iboy and U.D.P Senator Abel Zetina expressed concerns that the project could have significant negative impacts on the environment.

 

Oscar Iboy, San Pedro Tour Guide

“He said that we, the people of San Pedro are misinformed concerning the dreading and development that’s going on at Cayo Rosario and I wanted to send back these words to him when he said “misinformed.” We, the people out here in San Pedro are the ones watching and seeing the excavation that’s going on, and I don’t know what he means by they’re not doing any dredging, but they are piling posts. That is the same thing. I don’t know what’s the difference that makes – dredging and piling a post. You still have to dredge to pile a post – and saying that these people have permits to do these things. One of the things is that that’s only one of the problems we have. We have another problem with the destruction of our mangroves, the filling up of our lagoons.”

 

Abel Zetina, U.D.P. Senator

“I think it’s ridiculous, man. We clearly went there. We saw that dredging is happening. In fact, they are building land where there wasn’t land just a couple months back. And it’s being filled with the same sand, with dredging that’s happening there. And we saw that with our own two eyes. We went there yesterday – actually it was the day before and so that is happening. We’re not opposed to development. I want to make that absolutely clear – not opposed to development, but it needs to be done in an environmentally conscious manner.”