Running out of space to bury our dead

EDITOR: The rate at which people are dying in this country has created a major problem. This problem I am afraid is not easy to be solved. It is not political. The problem I am talking about is space to bury persons that are dead.

Many cemeteries across this country are already filled. One of most critical in terms of needing space to bury dead is the Kingstown cemetery. This cemetery accommodates the entire Kingstown. It is so critical that persons are buried sometimes on other persons. There are so many other cemeteries across this nation that are also filled to capacity.

I know that efforts were made and continue to be made to find suitable places for a burial ground. The problem is that there is hardly any lands available for that purpose, especially in Kingstown. In the rural areas there may be, in some cases, lands available. So where there are lands available that are suited for burial efforts must be made to get these lands available at the quickest possible time.

However, in some cases like in Kingstown where there seems to be no suitable place available then there cannot be any new burial ground. “What then?” one may ask. I guess the time will come and may be sooner than later, if lands are not available for burial then cremation maybe the next option.

My gut feeling is that although the population would not want to accept this, it will eventually become a law or very little choice to not cremate since there would practically be nowhere to bury our loved ones.

Death is so common these days that we need to be prepared and also we have to be willing to accept changes and if it requires cremation it has to be done. Let us hope that successful efforts would be made to locate and purchase lands for cemeteries. This I know will make many persons happy to know we can still have our loved ones buried rather than cremate.

Thanks for your space.

Kennard King