Will Government Assist Farmers in San Pedro, Columbia?  

The fight against the fires brought on by the severe regional heatwave is a continuous effort across the country. The recent fire at the Mountain Pine Ridge Forest Reserve drew great concern for the Forest Department, as resources and manpower were already divided amongst several fires in southern Belize. Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development and Climate Change, told us that it is due to the collaborative efforts between several organizations, that all the fires can be addressed and that additional assistance for the affected individuals is in the pipeline.

 

Orlando Habet, Minister of Sustainable Development and Climate Change

“It was something that we had to make a decision on because we also knew that there were fires down south in Colombia. And so we wanted to share the personnel. But because NEMO had taken the leadership down because it’s now close to communities, they took jurisdiction of that and assistance from some of our fire department forest department personnel from the south in Machaca, and they also got assistance from the N.G.O.’s like TIDE who have a lot of experience doing fire training. And also with Ya’axche, they had a lot of help. So, we decided that it was best that we address this area with the personnel we had. I think within the limits of the towns and villages, it is very important that we stress information and education for the public because it is absolutely necessary for us to educate our public. Sometimes it’s just a small fire in the backyard fire that can get away and then the smoke and everything else is a problem. You see what’s happened in San Ignacio and Santa Elena during the past week. The air quality is really bad. You can’t come out and run or jog or exercise, do your bicycling because it is terrible.”

 

Reporter

“Sir, Columbia, the villagers have lost a lot of farmlands. I think close to 90 farmers were with Nima earlier this week assessing the damage. Is the government doing anything to assist these people? Because this is their entire livelihood gone just like that.”

 

Orlando Habet

“Yeah certainly the government will come in to assist. I think right now they’re doing some assessments to see the people who are affected, the farmers who are affected. And as any emergency and any event, a catastrophic event like this, then the government makes these assessments. And if it’s in the agriculture sector, then the Ministry of Agriculture goes in to assist. And then certainly with the housing, then NEMO comes in and then the Ministry of Human Development also comes in to assist. The government will have to use some type of funding, maybe a contingency fund to try to get the funding to assist these people.”