Erosion on Belize’s side of Sarstoon Island has compromised the Forward Operating Base (FOB) established by the Belize Defence Force (BDF) in 2016

BELIZE CITY, Wed. July 20, 2022
Belize’s military presence on Sarstoon Island, which is positioned at a critical location in the Sarstoon River near Belize’s boundary with Guatemala, will be reduced as mitigation efforts commence to secure the Forward Operating Base (FOB) built just 7 years ago on the island.

According to the BDF’s Lt. Col. Jermaine Burns, BDF soldiers will now be present on the island only between 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. until the FOB building is “deemed safe”. The structural stability of the portion of land on which the FOB was constructed is now at risk due to the eroding coastline of the Belize side of the Sarstoon River. At this point, its frontmost posts have already become submerged – with water reaching the bottom of the building during high tide.

Lt. Col. Burns has indicated to local media that while the structure itself (which has been central to the country’s efforts to fend off illegal activity and incursions) is still intact, the environment where it sits is compromised.
 ”So the concern here is more the environmental, or the area, that the building sits on than it is the structure — the washing away or the erosion of the land mass. What we are cautious about is that we don’t want something to happen that affects the safety of the soldiers living at the FOB…,” Lt. Col Burns said.

He further explained, “The building is literally leaning now, because the frontmost posts are actually not firmly planted into the ground, because there is actually no soil that exists here anymore; it’s eroded.”

A decision has thus been made to transfer the eight soldiers stationed at the base to a Coast Guard base in Barranco Village, which is approximately 15 minutes away, until steps are taken to secure the base on Sarstoon.

Lt. Col Burns noted that they have been aware of the situation for about a year but began taking action to address the increased risk after the front posts of the building began to lean downward — toward the surrounding water.

He said that the Minister of National Security, Florencio Marin, saw the conditions of the building during a terrain tour, and subsequently an order was issued for the tactical withdrawal of the soldiers at the base until mitigation measures are put in place.

“When he visited the FOB, we spoke to him about the issues we had there. We had been reporting it, and we were given the order to conduct this tactical withdrawal to Barranco, which means that we are still maintaining military presence, but in the time span that I spoke to earlier: 6:00 to 6:00. Until we can get something done differently, “ Burns said.

Burns told 7News, “… We have been working hand in hand with the Coast Guard, who are in Barranco, and if you remember all the way back in 2016, they were initially working along with us at the FOB… During the day time, from six to six, we would venture to the FOB and the soldiers would remain there, and then in the night time we would return to Barranco.”

He then provided reassurance to the Belizean public: “That is not to say if for some reason we need to respond up the river, after 6:00 in the evening or before 6:00 in the morning, that we wouldn’t have the capacity to do it, but we wouldn’t want to be operating out of that particular building until it’s deemed safe.”

Sometime later this week, he said, an engineer is scheduled to visit the location to assess the situation and he will be responsible for formulating an immediate plan of action for the area, in order to get the soldiers back on the FOB as soon as possible, as well as medium and long-term plans for the location. He said the focus now is on protecting the building from further erosion, ensuring the soldiers’ safety, and securing the resources in the area. According to Burns, this may mean the construction of a seawall around the circumference of the affected areas.

“So far, we’re thinking about a seawall in front, but because of the way the water moves in the area, on the apex of the land mass there, we’re thinking about getting that seawall in somewhat of a circumference and making a small island of the area that we will use, but it will be for the engineers to decide what best fits a permanent situation out there, because, in no way, shape, or form do we want to move our soldiers from there; it is a strategic location for multiple reasons. “ Lt. Col. Burns said.

He told 7News, “I am the one responsible to put together the operating concept for something that works, immediately, something that works in the medium term, and something long-term and so we want an immediate fix. It may mean that the building has to be moved a little more to the west, bit of land clearing and so on, but in the medium term and long term, we’d need to put up some sort of seawall and because of the remote area that this FOB is in, that seawall is going to be pretty expensive.”

According to Burns, engineers from inside the BDF and the government have been back and forth with suggested solutions, but there have been a number of objections by BDF personnel to certain proposals from government engineers that are viewed by members of the military as inadequate or as short-term fixes.

“I was just the commanding officer of the 2nd Infantry Battalion out there about a year ago, and I had multiple visits out there, because I was writing up some of the reports as to where do we go in making the area better, and we had engineers that went out there and proposed some plans that were countered by some of our engineers internally because they thought that the ideas, while they would solve the problem immediately, they wouldn’t solve it for a long term, but the issue was always whose suggestion is the right suggestion, and so we remained out there. I left from the south, and the discussion kept coming up until we could have had our ministry visit to see how the situation was impacting the soldiers out there,” Burns said.

The importance of maintaining a 24-hour presence in the area cannot be understated, since BDF and Coast Guard personnel traffic the waters to prevent illegal fishing and find illegal settlements in the area. A Guatemalan base is on the other side of the Sarstoon Island, but Lt. Col. Burns could not say whether they are experiencing the same issue of erosion. (There have been unconfirmed reports, however, that that base may be encountering challenges due to the inverse effect of erosion — the depositing of sand that could block immediate access to the river.) He did point out that it would take a simple courtesy call to find out, adding that the relations between both militaries have been much more cordial than they previously were.

“We’ve had decent relations with the Guatemalans. We meet with them once a month at the battalion level, and at the force level we meet with them every quarter, and so our relations compared to what it was around 2016 to 2018 have improved vastly, because we’ve been negotiating with them on our border issues in the west, and we’ve spoken and worked with them a lot about our border issues along the Sarstoon, even more so with the landing of illicit airplanes in the south,” Burns said.

He then went on to remark that he does not know whether it is the particular location on the island at which the building was erected that has resulted in the challenges that are currently being faced.

“I don’t know if it’s an issue where we have positioned the FOB in such a way that it is being affected in that way and it wasn’t foreseen, but if it means reposition, then we’ll have to consider that as well,” Burns said.

He further mentioned that at the time of construction of the FOB. an environmental impact assessment was done, but while they were aware that some erosion would take place, they did not anticipate the magnitude of erosion that has been seen.

“We’ve only been in there 6 years now or just about, and so when we were setting up that base, an environmental impact assessment was done, had our engineer go in there, so while we foresaw that there was going to be some erosion, we depended on mangroves, and so that was in front of the structure, and if you go back to the pictures from 2016, you will see that there was a lot of flora and fauna in the area. The roots of the trees and so on, when we discussed erosion we thought that wouldn’t have been a problem, so we did not anticipate such significant issues with erosion,” Lt. Col. Burns pointed out.