The Forest Bay, on Anguilla’s south coast, one of the ten heaviest deposit areas of the invasive seaweed or sargassum, is now the focus of the big beach-cleaning campaign which began at Sandy Hill Bay on Friday, October 23.
Cleaning of the Forest Bay Beach with the use of heavy equipment, and manually by a number of persons got underway on Tuesday, October 27. Over sixty truckloads of the seaweed were transported to the nearby Corito dumpsite during that first day alone. Mrs. Evalie Bradley, Ministerial Assistant in the Ministry of Home Affairs, spoke about the overall clean-up campaign – a joint effort by Government and the community. She was at the time speaking at the Government’s press conference on Tuesday, October 27.
“I must commend all those persons who were involved in the removal of the seaweed at Sandy Hill Beach – who worked really hard because cleaning the beaches is a very labour intensive operation,” she said. “Thanks to all of the cleaners – the volunteers, community workers, the truck drivers, the heavy equipment operators and everyone else – who took part in ensuring that Sandy Hill Beach was cleaned. They really did a fine job. What is now required is that those community-minded persons assist with the maintenance because no sooner than you clean the beaches, the next morning or two, they are all filled with the seaweed again. It calls for a big commitment on all of us to do whatever is necessary to keep our beaches cleaned.”
Mrs. Bradley further stated: “Just this morning [Tuesday] cleaning of the Forest Bay was started and that is a big, big task. I visited there this morning and was pleased with the enthusiasm of all the workers – but it is really, really a heavy task. I believe the Forest Bay appears to be one of the worst affected beaches and we are calling on community-minded persons, volunteers, the business community, and those in the tourism sector, to come on board and help with the clean-up as well. I know it must be an on-going process and so far it has been a form of job creation for some of our young people, and we are just encouraging everyone to come out and assist in whatever way we can with the clean-up of the beaches.”
