Beaches cry out

EDITOR: We are blessed to have some of the best beaches in the world and we must preserve them for the benefit of our people and our visitors. Those who make a living from the beaches have a vested interest in them and have developed the techniques to best care for them. We need to have a partnership that allows all our beaches to be best kept.

It appears that some investors want some of our beaches to be private. In such cases, perhaps we can negotiate a daily, or weekly rental fee with the local communities. In theory, all our beaches are public. In practice some are semiprivate.

In the Grenadines, Mustique, Palm Island, Petit St Vincent and the Tobago Cays are semiprivate because of the inaccessibility. We would hardly bathe there except on special boat trips. In Canouan, and Buccament, the hotel owners are apparently trying to place obstacles in the way to discourage locals from frequenting those beaches. There is no easy solution except for us to upgrade all the beaches in the country to the extent that there would be less desire for the population to frequent particular beaches.

On Union Island, Richmond Beach was the best because it is shallow up to half mile out and is safe for children and senior citizens. Since it was taken over with sargassum weeds and apparently no entity is keeping it clean, it has fallen into disuse. Many moved to the Waterbreak Beach because Sparrows Restaurant and David’s Hotel keep it clean.

In recent times however, Emancipation Park has taken over as the most popular beach recreation spot. The Hutchinsons have invested much in it, providing picnic tables for the convenience of all. There is also adequate parking. The planting of neme, sea grapes, tamarind, and oleander are adding value to the park. The manchineel, and cactus, while they protect the land well, will have to be replaced with more friendly plants that serve the same purpose.
The authorities attempting to confiscate this park from the locals is not a good idea because tourism development is about us sharing what we have with others, not having what we have being taken away from us. Chatam Bay (Rawfall) that was confiscated from the Americans can be the focus of Government’s development. The locals have set up a thriving restaurant business there on the beach.

Apparently because the authorities want to restrict access to that beach, no public road was built to get there. I wish Kings Landing, and Clifton Beach hotels would take responsibility for Diablo Beach, clean up the sargassum weeds there and make it functional again.

All our beaches cry out for maintenance and preservation. A public/private partnership can accomplish this. With all our beaches maintained, and outfitted with adequate facilities, we would better serve our people and our visitors.

Anthony G Stewart PhD