One City – Three Ports: NGO community rings the alarm

Earlier this year, environmental clearance was granted to the Port of Belize for the upgrade of its cargo port and the expansion of a cruise port at its location in Southside Belize City.

Port of Magical Belize and Stake Bank are two other ports vying to become cruise ports — with Stake Bank, though engulfed in legal battles, near completion. Environmental organizations across the NGO community wrote a collective letter to the Government of Belize calling for a clear plan on how the three proposed ports would be sustained.

Dr. Elma Kay, Chairwoman of the Belize Network of NGOs, told News 5 in an interview: "If we don't have a plan, then development becomes ad hoc, and with all this talk of several ports, we have to consider the question of cumulative impacts. There have been a lot of feasibility studies that have shown that we can only economically accommodate one of those ports."

Kay added that the same holds true environmentally.

The environmental NGOs are calling for a clear plan for how the country will move ahead with these developments.