Tag Archives: South Coast

Rats Everywhere

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The following link was forwarded to the blogmaster’s inbox by our dearly departed ac. It is a serious matter and we thank her for making the blogmaster aware of this recent event.

Adrian Forde
Adrian Ford Minister of the Environment
Dr. Jerome Walcott, Minister of Health
Mr. Ian Gooding-Edghill, Minister of Tourism

There is still a sewerage problem on the South Coast although being ‘managed’ away from the glare of the public, add to the list now a rat problem. A consequence of the rat problem is that baby turtles are being targeted by the rats.

These rat attacks on turtles and invasion of popular eating spots on the South Coast are occurring in the highly trafficked tourist belt. Anyone passing on the South Coast today observed traffic congestion caused by major construction of a hotel. One must question the sense of it all.

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CGID RESPONDS TO THE PRIME MINISTER OF BARBADOS AND THE OAS

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Submitted by Rickford Burke, President, Caribbean Guyana Institute for Democracy (CGID)

It is unfortunate that, in response to intense solicitation and lobbying from Guyana’s opposition People Progressive Party (PPP) and their lobbyists, the Chairman of the Caribbean Community, Prime Minister of Barbados, Hon. Mia Mottley, as well as the Organization of American States (OAS) and the ABCE Ambassadors in Guyana, are contemptuously interfering in Guyana’s election controversy when this matter is subjucie at the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

The PPP is the most violently racist, brutally oppressive anti-black political organization is the Western Hemisphere. These foreign actors are interfering in the elections on behalf of the PPP. The results of the national recount of ballots cast in the March 2, 2020 elections show that the PPP has 15,000 more votes than the ruling APNU+AFC coalition. However the PPP’s subset of votes contain between 32,000 and 56,000 fraudulent ballots which were obtain through voter impersonation.

The Guyana Police Force, after an investigation by the Chief Immigration Officer, confirmed the presence of votes which were cast in the names of persons who are on the voters list, no longer reside in Guyana and were not present in Guyana on Election Day. The General Registrar of deaths has also furnished death certificates verifying that votes were cast in the names of dead people.

The Chief Election Officer (CEO) has confirmed in his report to the Election Commission that “In respect of the allegations of voter impersonation, responses from the Chief Immigration Officer and review of the General Registrar’s Office Deceased Reports confirmed that these were of substance.” Hence the thousands of fraudulent ballots that were cast through voter impersonation are not mere allegations for an elections petition. They are proven occurrences. These ballots cannot be counted.

The CEO’s report also states that “The summation of anomalies and instances of voter impersonation identified, clearly does not appear to satisfy the criteria of impartiality, fairness, and compliance with provisions of the Constitution and the Representation of the People Act (ROPA) Cap 1:03. Consequently, on the basis of the votes counted and the information furnished from the recount, it cannot be ascertained that the results meet the standard of fair and credible elections.”

This matter was ventilated on June 20, 2020, in the Guyana Court of Appeal, in the Eslyn David v. Chief Elections Officer case. The court ruled on June 22, 2020, that only “valid votes” cast in relation to the March 2, 2020 elections can be counted in accordance with Article 177 (4) of the Guyana constitution and Section 96 of the Representation the People Act. Consequently the CEO has prepared a report of valid votes only, which shows the ruling coalition won the elections. Foreign actors are now attempting to bully GECOM to change the lawful report to give the PPP the victory.

Guyana’s Chief Elections officer does not take instructions from the Chairman of CARICOM; the OAS of Western Ambassadors. The CEO takes instructions from the laws of Guyana; the Elections Commission and the Courts. Guyana is a sovereign State with a functioning, independent judiciary. Guyanese must reject any attempt by Prime Minister Mottley; the OAS and ABCE Ambassadors, to arrogate to themselves the powers of CECOM and Guyanese courts.

These foreign actors are attempting to force GECOM to disregard the ruling of the Guyana Court of Appeal and count fraudulently cast “valid ballots,” instead of “valid votes.” Under the laws of Guyana a valid ballot is a ballot paper which is correctly marked for the party for which the voter intended to vote. If that ballot paper is not correctly marked it is to be rejected as a spoilt ballot. On the other hand, a valid vote is a vote that is lawfully cast in person by an eligible voter whose name appears on the voters list, after that voter has been properly identified by a legitimate form of photo identification as required by law.

Guyanese are not prepared to accept a conflation of with fraudulent ballots with valid votes. We are not prepared to accept unlawful votes, that were cast in the names of dead people and people who live abroad as valid votes. Every Guyanese must resist this attempt by the PPP and international actors, to bully the nation to accept a racist, ethnocratic PPP regime based on fraudulent votes.

Moreover, the previous PPP regime, through death squads and extra judicial killings, murdered over 1400 African Guyanese, with impunity. This genocide was never investigated. There has been no justice. These black lives matter. What is CARICOM and the international community doing to bring about justice for these families?

The very CARICOM, which is speaking in support of the PPP now, was silent then when these African Guyanese young men were killed by the racist PPP regime. The PPP is the most violently racist and brutally oppressive, anti-black political organization is the Western Hemisphere. CGID calls on Guyanese to reject and resist any attempt by CARICOM and international actors to impost a racist PPP regime on our nation – via fraudulent ballots.

The bedrock of any democracy is one man, one vote, and that only legitimately cast, valid votes are counted. Guyana must be no different. CGID therefore calls on CARICOM and the international community to respect the democratic process and the courts of Guyana.

Piping Sewage to the Sea a Clear and Present Danger

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… Abrahams said that the outfall extends 815 metres (2,700 feet) offshore with two distinct high density polyethylene lines (HDPE), which was installed by Ward Drilling Inc., with sub–contractor Marenco Marine Ltd. One 8-inch and one 12-inch lines have been installed, with both of them capable of taking the entire flow from the plant individually…. Minister of Energy and Water Resources, Wilfred Abrahams

A recent discussion on another blog explained the threat to the environment of piping sewerage into the sea. Successive governments in their wisdom never allocated the resources to implement a tertiary treatment process as part of a relevant waste management system.  An irony for the blogmaster is that the Cabinet now includes a Minister of the Blue Economy, another for the Environment and let us not forget Water Resources.

The following comments (in two parts) were shared by Dr. Robert Lucas, PH.D., CFS,  Biotechnologist with the BU family in response to the question – what is the significance of a build up of phosphates and nitrates at the point of discharge in causing an algae bloom?

– David, Blogmaster

Comment #1

It is called eutrophication and is currently occurring off the south coast of Barbados where the escaping sewerage is being pumped into the sea. At the point of discharge there is a build up of phosphates and nitrates which cause an algae bloom that results in depletion of the oxygen content of the seawater. This creates a de facto desert in the sea. Halophilic anaerobic microorganisms predominate.

 

Comment #2

Nitrogen and phosphates occur in the foods humans ingest, Unused nitrates and phosphates are excreted into faecal matter. Nitrates and phosphates are soluble and are therefore easily dissolved in water. Nitrates and phosphates are essential elements required for microbial growth (note phosphates and nitrates are present as salts of potassium and sodium, i.e. all the major elements required for plant growth are present).

Also present in sea water are trace elements such as magnesium, manganese, molybdenum, sulphur, iron, zinc and copper. In other words you have an ideal medium for plant growth. There is therefore an algal bloom which depletes the oxygen content of the area where the sewerage discharge occurs. That is at the end of the pipeline from which the discharge occurs and as far as the diffused elements reach by a process of osmosis. This area is a virtual desert, deficient in all plant and animal life (biota). Remember bacteria are actually members of the plant family,

Also present will be unicellular parasites (protozoa) which can cause amoebic dysentery (the lack of oxygen kills the non-cyst stage). The cysts stage constitute what are called survival bodies and ingesting such contaminated water results in illness.note anaerobic halophilic  (salt tolerant) microbes are predominant in the affected area.

#sewagerush@accra

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When the sewage breach on the South Coast first surfaced social media was accused of being irresponsible by giving it maximum airplay. Two ministers – John Boyce and Richard Sealy – felt motivated to jump smackdab in the affected area. Subsequent events have graphically illustrated that there was validity in concerns expressed at this relatively early juncture.

Further, it is reported that leader of the Opposition Mia Mottley sent an offline request to the prime minister two years ago to request a meeting, the objetive to discuss how a potential crisis could have been averted. In true bonehead style the request was ignored-  history is replete with narratives to support the political polarization that characterizes how backwater locales manage the affairs of state.

If there is one learning that should be taken away by ALL Barbadians is that there is benefit to working together in the national interest. If we cannot collaborate when the national issue is under threat then the question must be asked – why spend millions to educate ourselves?

The following videos were posted to Facebook and shared by Barbados Underground in the public’s interest.

 

#sewagerush

Waste Management: Serious Topic Barbadians Must DEMAND Discussion from Political Parties

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If for no other reason the general election season is a good opportunity to vent on the issues. One issue the blogmaster will be keeping an eye is how will the parties address waste management in the near, medium and long term. It was a big ticket item for the last government (DLP) however ten years later, it remains an outstanding item.

Here is a bullet extracted from the 2013 DLP Manifesto:

Provide sustainable solutions in the areas of solid waste management and water scarcity;

The sight of sewage water flowing on the streets of the South Coast which is located in the heart of our tourist belt continues to be a worry, increasing tourist arrivals notwithstanding. The issue is not that the design of the Sewage Plant was flawed under a BLP government. It is that for ten years those in charge of running the country were aware and allow the problem to get worse. We know that if the government was not aware the leader of the Opposition shared the information with the prime minister two years ago and he trivialized her attempt to draw attention to the issue. A similar reasoning is true for the situation unravelling at the Supreme Court.

What will be done to deal with the issue of raw sewage leaking on the South Coast AND elsewhere must be a national debate in the next 25 days. We stress on elsewhere because the blogmaster observed weeping manholes in Lake Folly.

Here is the pump adjacent to Lucky Horseshoe that is overflowing, again. The BWA promised that the 10 inch pump would have addressed this issue. The video was shot yesterday evening.

Food Biotechnologist Concerned About Water Quality | Agrees With US Embassy Warning Citizens

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Dr. Robert D.

Dun-Low lane

Bridgetown

Barbados, BB11157

robertd.lucas@gmail.com

Tel.246-426-6512

8th, February2018

The Editor

Barbados Underground

Bridgetown, Barbados

West Indies

Dear Sir/Madam

There is an article entitled “USA Embassy Unfairly Issues Public Health Advisory on Barbados” appearing in the “Barbados Underground.” Mention was made by various officials including the general manager (GM) of the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) and the acting chief medical officer (CMO) to the non-specific nature of the elevated microbial counts obtained by the Americans. The CMO also alluded to the fact that pseudomonas spp. are normally found in water tanks and plumbing fixtures if the levels of chlorine are depleted.

I have a few comments to make on the above. It is a fact that one would expect to find pseudomonas spp.in water tanks and plumbing fixtures since pseudomonas are capable of forming microbial biofilms and attachment to solid surfaces if cleaning in place has not been done. What was not mentioned is the fact that pseudomonas are also found associated with sewage. Also not mentioned is the fact that some pseudomonas are pathogenic to humans owing to the elaboration of enterotoxins I refer the CMO and the GM to the following articles, which they can find on the internet:

Charterization of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO Specific Bacteriophages Isolated from Sewage Samples.

Kurman and others, 2009. American Journal of Biomedical Sciences.1 :2 :91–102.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli in Sewerage and Fresh Water. Wheater and others 1980.

Water Research : 14 :7 : 713-721.

In microbiology, elevations of microbial counts are a matter for concern. To do otherwise, one would be guilty of gross negligence. In chemical and microbial risk analysis, one is taught how to evaluate risk. Risk interpretations obviously by the Americans were found to be unacceptable in this particular case. The Americans issued the advisory to their nationals, as is their right. It is therefore silly to talk about the Americans being unfair. Should the Americans put the welfare of Barbadians above the welfare of their citizens? I really do not think so. To show how silly the above position is, on the Voice of Barbados (VOB) call-in program of 30th January 2018, there was a caller who seemed very knowledgeable. He told the moderator that as far as he was concerned, the Americans were correct in their actions. He went on to point out that on a scale of 1to 10,with 10 being the worst value, that Barbados’ water scored consistently around 9.5(with all the atrazine and fertilizers being used in agriculture one ought not to be surprised). The moderator said that he knew about the border-line nature of Barbados’ water but he was ticked off with the Americans because they made it seemed as though the whole country’s water supply was affected by the sewerage crisis. What amazed me about the whole thing was the fact that an experience journalist knew about the borderline nature of the country’s water supply and did not inform the citizenry.

This unfair talk is all about the fact that this country has been silly enough to depend mainly on tourism for developmental purposes. There is a fear that the bottom will drop out of the tourist market because of the present debacle. “Where there is no vision, the people perish” We have had leaders with limited or no vision. We are in the twenty-first century and the emphasis is still on economics, medicine, law, political science.

Sincerely

Robert D. Lucas, PH.D.

Food Biotechnologist

A Shitty South Coast

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Patricia Inniss, head of the Waste Unit at the BWA

For many years the South Coast of Barbados – Oistins to Worthing – has been known at home and abroad as the place to wine, dine and party by locals and tourists alike. Regrettably in the last year the South Coast has been making the news because of sewage overflowing onto public spaces; roadways, residential and business premises.

The Barbados Water Authority (BWA) engineers have tried to fix the problem with minimal success. The reality is that the sewage system in Barbados has been poorly maintained through the years and the hodgepodge approach of the BWA has been significantly affected by a lack of funds and pertinent expertise.  This conclusion was confirmed by manager of the Water Unit at the BWA yesterday on live radio. To her credit Patricia Inniss projected that she was knowledgeable in her job but has been constrained by a lack of resources and an inherited position of a poor maintenance record.

Many of us were bemused by the decision of ministers of government Richard Sealy and John Boyce to bath in the shitty waters of the South Coast in order to convince a suspicious public that all was well.

We await PR stunt number 2!

The following video  circulated on Whatsapp last weekend captures the overflowing filth onto the streets on the South Coast.