Dennery Village
(SNO) – Residents of Micoud and Dennery are continuing to cry out for help from the authorities concerning the sargassum seaweed invasion.
The stench from the rotten matter has become so unbearable that persons are reporting that they are unable to sleep at nights.
Our newsroom received an aerial video of the Dennery Village shoreline which shows how bad the problem is.
Other Caribbean islands are also experiencing the problem.
As one Dennery resident told us in an email: “The health of our fellow citizens are important; to let the government know we dying, it stinks, that giving people infections. I can’t sleep!”
Sustainable Development Minister and Micoud North MP, Dr. Gale Rigobert told reporters last month that government is trying it’s best to deal with the problem.
“We have held meetings with stakeholders, the Ministry of Fisheries, Agriculture and Fisheries, with which we work very closely; has held community meetings, albeit that they were poorly attended and that is why I want to encourage people to attend public meetings. That is where the information is had. That is where the information is being shared,” the minister stressed.
The minister said thousands of dollars have been spent in tackling the problem, but the government’s resources are limited. She added that she has held meetings with founder of Algas Organics, Yohanan Dujon, whose company processes the seaweed into liquid fertilizer.
“Each time the seaweed comes, we invest $100, 000, and next week, another $100, 000. I don’t know that we have the resources to keep up at that pace, without having a comprehensive fix,” Dr. Rigobert said.
She added: “So after having met with Mr. Dujon, who is working along with IICA (Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture), who is working along with UNDP GEF, who is working along with the …sustainable development and my own parliamentary office, and after having invited from proposals from qualified persons who have expertise in dealing with sargassum, this (would not be last week) Thursday, Prime Minister, Minister for Agriculture, PS for Agriculture and I, and perhaps some other stakeholders, will be combing through the various proposals that we have received with a view to determining which ones are most feasible, pragmatic, and can give us the comprehensive, sustainable fix that we need for this sargassum problem.”
The seaweed invasion is island-wide but Praslin and Micoud appeared to have been the worst hit in recent times. And Rigobert said satellite images of sargassum approaching St. Lucia indicates that the island is expected to get a lot more seaweed.
(0)
(4)The post VIDEO: “We dying, it stinks, I can’t sleep” – Dennery and Micoud residents frustrated with seaweed problem appeared first on St. Lucia News Online.