There is an environmental crisis in the making on Grand Anse beach due to those yachts on Pandy beach dumping human waste into the water, according to attorney-at-law, Anslem Clouden.
In an exclusive interview with THE NEW TODAY, Clouden called on the ruling New National Party (NNP) government of Prime Minister Dr. Keith Mitchell to move quickly and address the situation as it poses a serious environmental problem for the world famous Grand Anse beach.
He charged that the Prime Minister and his government are “just sitting there” and giving “no sort of management” to the issue of the environment and especially what is taking place in and around Pandy beach with the yachters.
He expressed fears that before long, swimmers and sea-bathers are going to start getting infections in their ears, nose and throats among other part of the body due to the catastrophe taking place on the beach from these yachts.
“We have an environmental catastrophe on Grand Anse beach – all those yachts in Pandy letting go all their (human waste) in the water. This is an environmental catastrophe awaiting Grand Anse swimmers,” he said.
“These yachts there just flushing their toilet in the ocean – all their dish washing and everything – killing the reef and now (human waste) coming in on Grand Anse beach,” he added.
According to Clouden, several persons have seen the feaces floating in the water and making their way from the Pandy area into the Grand Anse beach.
“The stench is coming out of there. People have seen (the human waste)”, he said.
The attorney pointed out that the Grenada Ports Authority (GPA) has “a tremendous responsibility to ensure the quality of the water” in the Pandy beach area and should be engaged in testing that water from time to time.
“No boat should be allowed to berth in Pandy unless they have the capacity to have a waste disposal vessel come (there) and they pump the (human waste) into that vessel and the vessel takes that (human waste) wherever they want to but not on Grand Anse beach,” he said.
“This is what they should insist – if you’re going to have these yachts at Pandy then they can’t flush this toxic waste into the ocean like that – the tide is bringing it to Grand Anse beach,” he added.
According to Clouden, the Pandy situation provides an opportunity for the Mitchell regime to get a foreign investor to pump some money into acquiring waste disposal boats to take care of the human waste situation at sea.
He said that these boats have the option of taking the waste into holding tanks to either “recycle them or do what they have to do with them”.
“You can’t be contaminating the water where people bathe like this. You can’t have tourists come on that beach and get sick or infected,” he remarked.
Clouden is considered as a local coastal zone management expert and is a former advisor to the Governor in the U.S Virgin Islands on Coastal Law management zone and helped in the drafting of that island’s Coastal Management act and Oil spill contingency plan.