IF, LIKE ME, you went anywhere to enjoy the scenic or erstwhile pristine surroundings of Barbados’ coastal venues last weekend, like me you might have been a tad disappointed at the garbage thrown about these areas, the scent of rotting food, the sight of the odd used pamper, and other awful things.
Normally, I don’t get too excited or passionate about the litter situation in Barbados because I truly believe garbage disposal efforts by the Sanitation Service Authority have been commendable.
I also thought I had grown immune to the sight of beautiful surroundings being spoilt by careless Barbadians who take what we have for granted, but would never litter the streets of certain international capitals when they travel.
My view now has changed, and I strongly believe that if anyone is put into a particular place or space and leaves it like a pigsty, chances are that person has the mentality of a pig.
And no Barbadian should be offended at this, because if you do not treat yourself or your immediate surroundings with even a modicum of dignity, why should you expect others to afford you dignified treatment otherwise?
With thoughts of the environment whirling around in my head, therefore, I also wondered over the last weekend whether politicians, especially after a rather gruelling election, take their work seriously or whether in fact they take the public for granted.
Coming out of the last general election, I was holding out hope for a veritable step-up in accountability in Government once a new term of office had begun for whichever party.
But in the past week again I was a tad disappointed. There was a large industrial fire amid a large community covering St Thomas and parts of St James last Monday, yet the minister charged with overseeing environmental matters has officially said nothing.
He was due to address a Press conference since last Wednesday but that was cancelled. The following day, Cabinet met and one would hope that B’s Recycling would have been somewhere on somebody’s agenda; but the entire Holy weekend passed without a squeak from Dr Denis Lowe.
Now as little as Mr Lowe may think of us in the Fourth Estate, we are the main information conduit to the public, despite whatever “PR” other services may give; and his failure to address either by words or action what could have been a national disaster has not gone unnoticed.
And now that the metal dump is to be returned to Vaucluse, he may find himself on the back foot as the Opposition prepares to say “we told you so”.
In fact, I have no doubt that the controversial B’s Recycling may well have been one of the reasons behind the former St James Central Member of Parliament losing his seat in the last general election.
Added to the sorry mess, pardon the pun, is the large sum of money, $116 million, allocated to the Ministry of the Environment and Drainage in the recent Estimates. It is as if someone has had a vision that more rain than ever will fall this year and that Barbados’ drainage woes need to be addressed with unprecedented haste.
It may also be that someone has realized that the country’s environment is truly under threat: with two chemical factories embedded within communities of St Thomas and Goodland, Christ Church; with poultry farms being in close proximity to several houses; with some homeowners being allowed to build and block waterways; with household and agricultural chemicals leaking into the island’s water supply; and with some one-time beautiful sites evolving into wastelands.
If Government is pushing a green economy, it cannot only emphasize renewable energy as the centrepiece of its long-term economic strategy. It must also step up its campaign against littering at picnic venues and during mass-attendance events like the Oistins Fish Festival and Crop Over.
Furthermore, a draft national plan has to be made regarding the disposal of garbage and other waste in a small country like ours.
Numerous ecological and engineering studies were done as far back as the Greenland fiasco in 1994, and it is time to dust off those files and come up with the best combination of solutions for a water-scarce Barbados that needs to provide a healthy environment for its citizens and nearly half a million tourists who visit these shores yearly.
• Ricky Jordan is an Associate Editor of the NATION. Email [email protected]
