Esperanza
May 17th 2014

Dear Editor,

Last week in the Star newspaper, we saw a notice from Becol advertising a meeting concerning safety on the Macal River, (gave the paper to a friend, so can’t remember the exact wording) and the early warning system. The meeting was to be at 6 p.m. at Hodes Place.

Luckily, we went to buy bread at The New French Bakery in San Ignacio on Friday morning and spotted a small flyer on the counter advertising the Becol meeting. In small handwriting, the venue had been changed to the Leisure Centre, but everything else remained the same.

We set out from home at 5:30 p.m. to get a bus or taxi to San Ignacio. We waited maybe half an hour before a bus came and we arrived some time after 6 o’clock. The Leisure Centre was more or less in darkness and few people about. I thought we must be mis-informed about the venue, but my husband pointed out a small map of the Macal and Mopan rivers at the side of the stage area, so we sat down to wait.

After about half an hour, I went and spoke to one of the two young men sitting in the front row of chairs. We introduced ourselves and I asked what was happening. He said they were waiting for more people to come. I told him that my husband had said to me that no one will come: it’s Friday and the day after payday and people will be doing other things. Once again Becol had chosen a bad time.

Eventually, we were told that the presentation would be done just for us. We had seen a couple of other people around, so we waved at them. The sum total of us in the audience was seven.

What a pity that no one else came. We were given an extremely good presentation and for the first time, I believe it was honest. The presentation was the one they take into the schools, done so that children are not frightened but with an emphasis on how vital it is that everyone knows what to do should the dam break.

I asked about the height the water would be in comparison with the height of water that comes down every afternoon (about a foot). The increase would be a hundred fold.

There is an hour’s warning for those people in earshot of the sirens, the rest of us (and at last it was acknowledged that we in Esperanza and further down the river WOULD be affected) would have to rely on the police hurling down the George Price Highway.

This is a far more serious situation than we were led to believe in the past. It seems to us that the Government should have a disaster plan for all of the Belize River Valley. An extremely worrying situation and NEMO and the DOE were not in attendance although they were listed as being there. At last Becol seems to care after being so high-handed in the past and no one else seems to care.

All in all, it turned out to be a very good meeting and we hope that when the meeting for Santa Elena is finalised, that it will be well publicised and that these two workers get the interest and support from the people that they deserve.

Sally and Leonardo Caretella