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by Terry Ally BRIDGETOWN, Nov 12 (IPS) - At least six small Caribbean islands which are trying to come to grips with a mounting waste disposal problem have decided that it is time that visitors to their shores assist in cleaning up their garbage.
So come Dec. 1 each tourist who steps off an aircraft or a ship to spend some time in Antigua/Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia or St. Vincent will be asked to make a contribution of 1.50 dollars towards garbage disposal.
The six are all members of the eight-member grouping of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) which is presently devising and implementing a regional solid waste management plan.
That plan involves recycling initiatives and construction of sanitary landfills and facilities to dispose of shipborne waste, says manager of the OECS Solid Waste Management Project, David Simmons.
"The whole initiative for solid waste management came out of recognition that our waters around the Caribbean were heavily polluted with waste, some of it was believed to be dumped by ships at sea, particularly cruise ships and also that there was a lot of landbased generated waste some of which was washed out to sea," he says
"We do recognise that because visitors to our shores do want to see a pristine environment, we believe they should be asked to contribute something and they already indicated they don't mind as long as they see the kind of results which we are proposing," he adds.
However, Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) which represents 98 percent of the cruise ships which berth in the Caribbean has not welcomed the idea.
Executive Director Michelle Paige says on board each vessel, there is usually about 10 million dollars worth of waste disposal facilities, including incinerators, pulpers and compactors which is more than what is to be found in an average American city. "We have zero discharge," she says.
Last year just under 1.1 million tourists visited the six islands on cruise ships while 727,500 were long stay visitors generating more than 10 million kilogrammes of garbage.
Based on last year's statistics, the levy is expected to net about 2.6 million dollars per year which Simmons says is clearly not enough money to deal with disposal, but it is a start.
However, tourists are not bearing the brunt of the levy alone but in the coming years a number of cost recovery measures will be introduced to help fund the cost of new disposal facilities for municipal and ship borne solid waste and waste oil.
Grenada, for example has already decided to charge a levy in collaboration with the electricity programme. So households are asked to make a small contribution towards the solid waste programme, based on the amoung of kilowatts of electricity used.
Meanwhile, Paige says that the FCCA has fundamental objections to the move by the OECS to charge their passengers a levy and that the Association would welcome inspection of the facilities on board the ships.
"If the OECS nations deem it appropriate to put in facilities to handle the land-based needs, then that is their decision. And, if they want to offer a service and for that they would charge a service fee, a tipping fee, to any entity that wishes to use the facility, then that would be appropriate.
"But to charge an across-the-board environmental levy to be able to look at putting in equipment to cater to the cruise industry, it's not needed. We have zero discharge, we are able to take care of all of our needs on board our ships," she says. (end/ips/en/ta/cb/97)
