Coastal Zone Management Unit praised for their protection of the island’s shorelines
A number of Boardwalk sites and revetments on both south and west coasts were just inspected by the Honourable Adrian Forde, the Minister of the Environment & National Beautification along with delegates from the Coastal Zone Management Unit (CZMU):
The west coast areas included – Holetown; Discovery Bay; Folkestone in addition to Sand Street. While the southern spots included – Rockley boardwalk; Rendezvous and concluding at Oistins.
The tour gave a comprehensive overview of the project work the CZMU have done, and they’ll be looking to implement in the next phase of their coastal conservation programme with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
Minister Forde, who’s also responsible for the Blue Economy, was impressed by how revetments have successfully played their part in reducing and combatting beach erosion; however, he was saddened by how too much garbage ends up on various groynes and reefs – “I was unfortunately exposed to (direct evidence of) it, during this tour, visitors came to me with garbage in a bag they carried! They are at their wit’s end how an island who does so much to protect its maritime borders and its environment yet have Barbadians who can bedevil this effort with illegal dumping.”
Minister Forde says brakes must be firmly applied to this practice and he won’t be tolerating it while handling this portfolio. Apart from poor sanitary habits, he added how this sends the wrong message for attracting the best tourism product for the country – he noted this hurts progress made in developing the Blue Economy, as has been emphasised in the last four years.
Director of the CZMU, Dr Leo Brewster, indicated the duration of the partnership between the IDB and the Unit, citing approximately forty million dollars disbursed for numerous projects including the Boardwalk since 2002, he also noted impending 2024 and 2025 projects involving Sand Street and Oistins – “The real intention is to bring (Minister Forde) up to speed on the engineering aspect of stabilising the shoreline as well as to ensure the Minister understands the necessary work required to continue to protect the shoreline, given the challenges of climate change.”
Delegates included Permanent Secretary Sonia Foster, along with Fabian Hinds, Alison Wiggins and Ricardo Arthur and other colleagues from the CZMU.
