The Editor, The Anguillian
Dear Sir,
Is Anguilla going to Waste???
A lady from The Valley sums up the situation rather clearly. Her comment, “My child, they are building monuments!”
In Anguilla there is an ever increasing number of businesses and/or structures that have become defunct. We start and stop. For whatever reasons, this sort of thing happens all the time. It maybe a good idea for us to think carefully about the proposed ‘waste energy’ project for Anguilla before adding to the list of failures. Many hotel properties are in disrepair – some never got off the ground. Restaurants start and close almost in the same month, built at great cost to owners but seemingly with no kind of location/market research. These structures are all over the island – people could easily figure this out for themselves. Anguillians never understood the wharf facility constructed at Cul de Sac (Rendezvous Bay) area to enable larger yachts to use our shores and perhaps bring income to some folks. The second time I visited that area there was a strong chain across the entrance with the words “private property” swinging in the breeze. (It is still there.) The most glaring of these failures is, of course, the water facility at Crocus Bay. High costs, poor management, no vision for the future – you name anyone or all of these excuses – the answer is the same – a monument on the beach or elsewhere!
The Waste Proposal re electricity says there will be no cost to our government. (Really?) How is this project going to help bring down the cost of electricity? We will still need oil (with its surcharge) to run the generators, in addition to the cost of producing energy from waste products. Structures will have to built to house all these projects, as well as the machinery to crush/store material that cannot be used for the waste project. Which other country will accept all this unusable stuff that Anguilla does not need? Who is going to pay for the transportation? We don’t need anymore mess and confusion here. All we need is a sustainable way to reduce electricity costs to the consumer. Does anybody realize that sunlight is free? Could our engineers perhaps face reality? No extra buildings (monuments), no shipping of unwanted material, nothing to spoil our landscape with more decaying facilities when the crunch comes. St. Maarten has now decided to invest in solar energy (Daily Herald, Feb. 13, 2014). Maybe we will be able to source waste matter from them (at yet another cost, of course) when our meagre supplies run out!
Reasons for solar energy are on our doorstep! The sun will never charge ‘fuel charge’, never go on strike, never raise its price because of ‘oil wars’ in foreign countries. The technology is there. All Anguilla needs is someone with the sense, expertise and vision to use it!
Hoping for a brighter future for all Anguillians.
A Senior Citizen
