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By VANESSA C
ROLLE,Guardian Staff Reporter
South Andros
representative in Parliament Whitney Bastian is
concerned that infrastructural development on the
islands of Bimini and Andros will do more harm than
good to the environment.
During the Budget
Debate in the House of Assembly Thursday, Mr Bastian
said he recalled several years ago when Obie
Wilchcombe, Bimini and West End MP and Grant Towns MP
Bradley Roberts were concerned about the Bimini Bay
Project, and the damage done to Bimini.
He said since that
time, he has seen the Ambassador for the Environment,
Keod Smith, in Bimini with the developers giving his
stamp of approval for the project.
"My question
today Mr. Speaker, is, what has changed since then to
cause him to change his mind about the project that
has caused him to approve this project today,"
said Mr. Bastian.
He tabled pictures
of a house being built at Bimini Bay, that he said was
built without a foundation.
"Future
generations of Bahamians and maybe future persons who
invest in this same house.......where are the building
inspectors for Bimini that allow this sort of thing to
be going on in Bimini today," he asked.
Rising on a point
of order Bradley Roberts said, many years ago, lacking
englightenment, he too questioned houses that appeared
to be built without foundations.
" I said how
could they be building something on the ground. So I
talked to some engineers and they explained to me that
there is nothing engineeringly wrong with that because
one has to first cut into the ground and put a
foundation in compliance with engineering
specifications. Not only is it being done in Bimini,
it has been done in New Providence and other parts of
The Bahamas. This is nothing new."
Mr. Roberts said he
has engineering documents to support his statements.
Responding to
remarks from High Rock MP Kenneth Russell on this
issue, Mr. Roberts said " You were my predecessor
in office, so you should know of which I
speak...."
Continuing Mr.
Bastian said this was significant because in his
constituency of South Andros, "we're living with
mistakes by the former government which are directly
impacting on our lives today. Mr. Speaker, I wish to
assume that decisions that were made way back then,
when we went ahead with a development plan to put in
the roads and bridges, to connect our communities or
as much made by budget constraints, they have
unfortunately impacted upon the health of the
fisheries to a point now where we are seeing
measurable devastation on the habitat and the health
of our fisheries nurseries."
He said some of the
bridges in Andros have less than 13 per cent flow
under them for the habitat of juvenile fish, including
the grouper and lobster.
Some bridges he
said, cut off more than 90 per cent of the water flow
of creeks known to be important to the nursery.
The bridge at
Staniard Creek he said is also a "disaster
waiting to happen" as it is only being held up by
two pieces of steel.
"The concrete
has already been washed away from under the
bridge," he said.
Mr. Roberts said as
Minister of Works, he is aware of the problem with
those bridges that were built many, many years ago.
"The engineers
at my ministry have carried out an evaluation and
there is a programme to address the serious
deterioration of the bridges," he said.
Mr. Bastian added
that the former government spent almost $1 nillion to
repair that very bridge.
"The bridges,
crossways and roads which we put in now cut the
productivity of our fisheries in half. I venture to
say that they also have contributed to the devastation
of the pristine reef, the Barrier Reef of Andros
island -- devastated by global warming," and loss
of key species of nurseries that no longer are
productive," he said.
"Where in this
budget, Mr. Speaker, where is the money to fix
it," he asked.
He said he saw
$750,000 allocated in the budget for the Ministry of
Works to address this problem. He questioned whether
these funds were to address bridges throughout The
Bahamas or specifically for bridges in Andros.
"The reality
is, that in our Bahamaland, there are many bridges,
there are many roads, there are many islands of The
Bahamas that have conditions that have existed for
many years that all need to be addressed. But the
bottom line Mr. Speaker is that the government only
has a limited amount of funds to address these long
outstanding vexing issues," said Works' Minister
Bradley Roberts.
He said, "if
we had all the money to all of the shortcomings, we
would have included it in the budget Mr. Speaker.
Specifically, with regard to that bridge, I cannot
answer him. I do know that there is provision for at
least one of the bridges in Andros to be addressed in
the ensuing year, but we will do the best that we can
with what we have."
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