With almost all of the nation’s gullies clogged with filth, the government hired over 100 workers to clean them while installing surveillance cameras in strategic areas to catch illegal dumpers.
Minister of Environment and National Beautification Adrian Forde on Monday launched the $5 million Gullies Are Life national gully rehabilitation project in Green Hill at the site of the first gully to be cleaned and restored. The government’s forestry expert Nigel Jones said he hoped the project would also become a teaching opportunity.
Noting the important environmental role the island’s extensive network of gullies plays, Forde said the ecosystems within them could be used to combat the vagaries of climate change.
“This world is faced with a triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. This project will enable us, by coagulating our efforts, to combat all three in one swoop,” he said. “With a good ecosystem, the gullies project, it will help in terms of having a green carbon sync so we can reduce harmful greenhouse gases that affect the world over . . . In terms of biodiversity . . . this project will be able to reactivate and recondition our biodiversity in a special way. The issue as it relates to illegal dumping and pollution, I am saying that with a good gully project we will be cleaning all of the gullies across Barbados.”
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment Anthony Headley said that gullies across the island took up in excess of 1 500 kilometres of space and contributed greatly to the supply of tap water.
Minister of Environment and National Beautification Adrian Forde.
“This is important in terms of maintaining the quality of our drinking water. A lot of the water that we get into our aquifers comes through the gullies and percolates into the aquifers that supply the Belle drinking supply well, which is the largest public supply well in Barbados. It supports about 27 per cent of our drinking water,” Headley said.
The year-long project will employ 106 workers with additional help to be sought from the Sanitation Service Authority and the National Conservation Commission.
An ecological and solid waste assessment of the island’s gullies found that household waste, chemicals and bulk waste, was dumped in 95 per cent of them.
“This is extremely dangerous in terms of damage not only to our drinking water supply but potential damage to our nearshore marine environment; all gully systems lead to the marine environment,” said Headley.
At the Green Hill gully, workers were collecting about 20 bags of rubbish per hour.
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Environment Anthony Headley.
In a bid to go after illegal dumpers, Minister Forde said cameras would be placed in strategic areas to catch culprits, as he appealed to Barbadians to capture video and pictures of illegal dumpers in the act.
The minister said: “In the same way that we exercise a lot of energy to maliciously put persons on social media then that energy can be geared towards putting persons who are involved in the destruction of the environment, whether it is cutting down trees, whatever it is, we can use our phones and other devices to do the same thing . . . Put those persons in a shame and blame campaign . . . so we can bring them before the justice system.”
The gully rehabilitation project includes planting vegetation and re-establishing pathways for hiking and other recreational purposes.
Dendrologist Nigel Jones, the government’s forestry officer, said that he wanted the project to involve post-secondary school students studying degrees in the environment or ecology, as there was much to be learned.
sheriabrathwaite@barbadostoday.bb
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