Submitted by Anthony Davis

Denis Lowe, Minister of the Drainage

The Cahill project may be a thing of the past, but the Freundel Stuart administration has not abandoned the idea of a waste-to-energy plant on the island.In fact, Minister of the Environment Dr. Denis Lowe warned that Barbados ‘cannot fully develop without the inclusion of waste-to-energy technology’, as he piloted a resolution on the Barbados Green Economy Scoping Study in Parliament – Barbados TODAY dated October 25, 2016

Once again someone in this Government is trying to lay the blame for his dilemma on the populace of this country. When they wanted to hike the water rates Minister Kellman came up with the flimsy excuse that the populace used the most water in the island, whereas it’s evident that the hotels especially, use the most water. Other businesses, and Government also use a lot of water.

Pray, tell me Mr. Minister, did you not read the “Burnside Mangrove Pond Green Energy Complex & Beautification Programme and Environmental Impact Assessment Outline Review TCDPO Ref: 1123/07/2013C” which you should have received re the Cahill Waste-to-energy plant?

It states at 4.1:

Waste Generation and Disposal Requirements
Waste generation is closely linked to population, though for Barbados, tourism contributes a disproportionate quantity of waste. A rule-of-thumb is that each tourist generates roughly three times the waste of a local person in the same period of time.

If we take as an example that 50,000 tourists came to Barbados in any given year, how much waste would they have generated as opposed to 50, 000 locals?

I didn’t go to university so I need you to do the math for me.

Why do you single out the businesses – especially the restaurants – to put on the pranger?

What tax do you want to call this one?

The business tax?

I guess the businesses -including the restaurants, already pay heavy taxes, except they are one of those belonging to Sandals which doesn’t pay any taxes and won’t be doing so for years to come.

You can fleece the indigenous businesses and the rest of the populace, but you can waiver the taxes for some foreign entity, and in the meantime renege on your promise to give the other hotels of the BHTA the same sweetheart deal you gave to Sandals with the stroke of a pen.

Which type of waste-to-energy plant are you planning for Barbados, Mr. Minister?

Under 2) Gasification, of the said Burnside report it states:

Several waste gasification processes have been proposed, but few have yet been built and tested, and only a handful have been implemented as plants processing real waste, and mostly in combination with fossil fuels.

Wouldn’t such a plant produce more environmental pollution than we already have?

What made you lash out at some of your Government’s favourite people?

Have they stepped out of line?

Won’t you have to depend on them some time again?

Where are the anti-environmental pollution laws which you promised us for this year, Mr. Minister?

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.