NO Dredging for sand for golf course IN CANOUAN !!!
Many conscious Vincentians at home and abroad have joined the 2025 road march chorus of “no dredging of sand, for a ‘golf course’ in Canouan”, which was prompted by a public notice in the local newspapers about the intention of a company in Canouan to dredge sand to make a passage in the Godhal bay for a barge to bring 100,000 tons of sand for the golf course .
One of the first persons to reject the idea of dredging was Ms. Hazell Anne Sandy, from Canouan whose letter to the Planning Division will no doubt be published in all local print and online news media, a letter which outlines in detail the reasons why our fragile marine ecosystem now trying to recover from the damage done by ‘Beryl’ less than a year ago should NOT be tampered with and why absolutely NO DREDGING must be undertaken in Canouan, for the benefit of the rich and famous.
The flimsy reasons given for choosing Godhal bay to off load the 100,000 tons of sand, is that the 15,000 truck loads required to move this large volume of sand will cause too much disruption and air pollution to residents of Canouan if the cargo is off loaded at the main harbor. If we are to use the same argument, wouldn’t the high paying guests on the resort where they are proposing to off load the sand suffer the same discomfort with so many truck movements, while destroying the marine environment by dredging in the process ? Are these billionaires including some greedy and misguided locals losing it, or is there a hidden agenda ? Maybe both !
The risks of dredging the sand from the coastal waters around Canouan are enormous and irreversible. Like Ms. Sandy, I am of the informed opinion that this project should reach no further than the current application stage and must be rejected totally despite the fact an environmental impact assessment was done. No sane environmentalist consultant can reasonably justify the removal of coastal sand for the passage of a barge to bring sand for a golf course when our fragile ecosystem is at constant risk from natural hazards and now from a human hazard, dredging !
The meeting convened by Canouan residents on Monday, May 19, 2025 is a clear indication that as small as the population of Canouan may be, it is the concern shown for the development of their beautiful island and not the whim and fancy of some foreign developer that is important. Canouan belongs to the people and government of St. Vincent & the Grenadines and not a billionaire which is erroneously posted on the internet, which must be pulled down immediately, unless our political leaders agree with the post. Our tourism department must also call for the removal of that unfortunate statement online unless they are complicit.
All power to conscious Vincentians who oppose and reject the study submitted to the Planning Division for approval. Canouan residents were also dissatisfied in the manner the ESIA was conducted and that the consultant had ‘promised’ to return to discuss the matter with a wider audience, which NEVER happened. How much was the consultant paid may not be our business, but it wasn’t two dollars EC. We hope the government collected their fair taxes from that study. We like to talk about transparency, but the only thing transparent in this matter is the uprising of dissatisfaction by Vincentians who have a genuine love for their country and careful development and preservation of our beautiful environment.
