Perry Christie says he would not have given approval for certain dredging at Bell Island. As he and the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP) are rarely able to make a decision, he’s right, he probably would have simply not taken a decision. His weakness and inability to make a decision is why his government fell way behind in adding any significant acreage to the National Park System, which he now claims to care about so much. It is Hubert Ingraham and the Free National Movement (FNM) who doubled the park system, and are continuing to add to it year after year.
But Perry Christie and the PLP did create an environmental legacy, a very poor one. They allowed extensive filling at the Ginn development on Grand Bahama. The problem here is that low-lying areas are supposed to absorb heavy rainfall and sea surges. When the area is filled in invariably other areas flood.
Their hypocrisy knows no bounds. They approved, at the Albany project, a marina and canal which apparently would have been horrendous and reprehensible if done under the FNM.
That decision has resulted in considerable erosion along parts of the beach to the east of the development.
Perhaps Jerome Fitzgerald and his sidekick Ryan Pinder would like to do a show and tell the Bahamian people about this actual beach erosion rather than the gimmick they performed at Saunders Beach. Not only was there no damage to the beach, the beach and the surrounding area have been turned into a wonderful new park.
Of course, this type of game-playing is typical of Mr Fitzgerald and the PLP. Some in that party tried to blame the FNM for the Sandyport Canal. The canal was approved by Sir Lynden (Pindling) who also agreed to a road swap in the construction of the bridge. What the FNM did do, was to convince the developers to voluntarily reduce the proposed density of the development.
Of course, one of the PLP’s biggest environmental disasters was from 2002 to 2007 when it built low cost houses in swamps resulting in cracked foundations and walls, as well as millions being spent to correct yet another example of Shane Gibson’s follies. But Shane’s many follies and other PLP environmental disasters must wait for another day.
By: Concerned Citizen
