Placencia Residents Raise Alarm Over Dredging

Concerns continue to grow in Placencia over what residents and marine operators describe as unchecked and haphazard dredging activities taking place along sections of the lagoon and coastline. Community members are now questioning whether some property owners are bypassing the proper channels for permits, environmental clearances, and authorizations before carrying out dredging works.  The issue follows recent reports of ongoing dredging activity in the Placencia Lagoon, where uncertainty still surrounds who is behind the operation and what exactly the project entails. Residents say there has been little to no public information provided, despite increasing concern over the environmental and navigational impact of the works.  Adding to the frustration are reports that the dredging area remains without adequate warning lights or navigational markers, creating potential dangers for boat operators, fishermen, and tour guides who traverse the lagoon, particularly at night. Environmental concerns have also surfaced, with some residents fearing that marine habitats and wildlife in the area may already be affected.  Tour guide Harry Neal says authorities need to step in urgently to assess what is taking place and ensure that all activities are being conducted legally and responsibly.

“It’s a major environmental impact. The dredging alone is heavy destruction for the environment. It’s heavy destruction for marine creatures that live in a lagoon area namely dolphins, we have rays, manatees, snook, jacks, barracudas. You know, the mangroves are juvenile habitat for many, many other fishes. Snapper, grunt, crab, shrimp, you name it. With that silt that’s drifting, it’s acidic right? They needed to put in place a sieve or mesh to collect all that silt. It minimizes the turbidity as well so that the visibility does not get terribly bad. Now in due respect I asked a few of the guys who’s working on the site and they’re just workers. They have no idea what’s going on. The soil has been dredged, put in dump trucks and transferred across the street, filling up nearby property, mostly on the beach. I don’t know if it’s a part of an erosion project. I don’t know if they got approval and permission to deal with that situation. However, it’s in the process. Now, as the president of the Placencia Tour Guide Association we have a chat group and guides that specifically deal with fishing the lagoon is a prime location that they use when it’s really rough and windy and also you have fishermen that’s the location, that’s the habitat they want to fish. So the chat group is hot.”

Residents are now calling on the relevant government departments, including the Department of the Environment and the Coastal Zone Management Authority, to conduct inspections and publicly clarify who authorized the dredging activities, whether environmental approvals were granted, and what measures are in place to protect the lagoon ecosystem and marine traffic.

As of news time, no official statement has been issued identifying the operators behind the dredging or explaining the scope of the project./