The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

FORMER Environment Minister Phenton Neymour has accused the government of destroying rare and precious coral reef in Exuma during a renovation of the government dock in George Town.

Mr Neymour said yesterday that while it was a good thing that the dock was being repaired and extended, there was no environmental supervision being carried out and as a result the water has become severely contaminated.

“This is the same location where they hold Regatta in Elizabeth Harbour. The area is beautiful and the previous FNM government realised this and sought to protect it. In fact we built a sewerage plant, installed boat mooring and we also have a boat that collects sewerage from boats that are anchored in the harbour. All with the objective of keeping the harbour clean. There is rare coral, only found in the Bahamas and Australia right there on stocking island,” he said.

“Now the government has this work being done and they are contaminating the water. They are not using a silt screen protection and the marine life is being destroyed. You can see the damage is about half a mile in length. The works need to be stopped immediately until there is an environmental evaluation on the site. This demonstrates that no plans were put in place to protect the harbour during these works.”

Mr Neymour said it was disturbing that neither the Ministry of the Environment nor the minister responsible had ‘done anything or said anything.’

He said: “As an Exumian, I am shocked that this level of contamination has been allowed to happen. There should have been an environmental impact assessment because of the scope of works that is going on. There should have been a management plan and an environmental assessment.”