_{Albert Roches, Health Safety Manager at FORTIS}

by Orlando Pulido (Freelance Writer)

SANTA ELENA TOWN, Cayo District, Thurs. Apr. 3, 2025

FORTIS Belize, formerly The Belize Electric Company Limited (BECOL), held an information session with community members at the Santa Elena Public Library in the Cayo District on Wednesday night, April 2. FORTIS regularly holds information sessions with the Cayo community.

Howard Cabral, Dam Safety Officer at FORTIS, told the Cayo residents on Wednesday, “We encourage everyone to have a plan.”

Cabral was referring to any dam breach that may occur on any of the dams on the Macal River.

Fortis Belize operates three hydroelectric facilities on the Macal River in western Belize – the Mollejon, Chalillo, and Vaca dams. The Chalillo hydroelectric facility is 12 miles (19.3km) upstream from the Mollejon hydroelectric facility, 30 miles (48.3km) from Cristo Rey Village, and 32 miles (51.5km) from the twin towns of San Ignacio and Santa Elena.

(The Challilo holds 32.8 billion gallons of water, the Mollejon 450 million gallons, and the Vaca 330 million gallons of water.)

The Vaca hydroelectric facility, located in the Vaca Plateau, is the last dam on the Macal River.

In a previous interview, Cabral had stated, “We [FORTIS] have an emergency plan; we have internal documents for flooding for different scenarios, flooding, fire, hurricane … one of those include a dam breach. The dam breach goes beyond FORTIS, because it would constitute a national emergency; so that procedure is developed by us and then vetted by NEMO [National Emergency Management Organization] and DOE, and then we have that implemented.”

For any dam breach, San Ignacio will have a 3 to 4-hour time period during which to evacuate, warned Cabral on Wednesday. The good news is that FORTIS has purchased 12 new sirens, with 4 destined for San Ignacio.

However, according to Albert Roches, Health Safety Manager at FORTIS, persons residing downstream of the Macal River have additional things to worry about. A lot of resorts are being placed “along the edge of the river,” and so there is now runoff into the river. He also told residents that there is now cattle “farming” being undertaken upriver of San Ignacio.

Roches provided an assurance, however, that the three dams on the Macal River have made the river more manageable during excessive flooding.

FORTIS, which is locally based at Mile 71 on the George Price Highway in the Cayo District, and has 44 Belizeans on its staff, is a subsidiary of FORTIS Incorporated, based in Saint John, Newfoundland in Canada.