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Editorial:
Straker erred on Big Gut water project
The
controversy in the west coast town of Layou, now bubbling into
national proportions over plans to export Big Gut spring water,
ought never to have occurred.
As
we understand it, proposals to export the natural spring water
from Layou were in the pipeline for the last five years. All Government
was awaiting, as the story goes, was an international concern
to market the precious St. Vincent commodity.
The
California-based Aqua Caribe is not only coming to market St.
Vincent's water in the United States and beyond, but it is investing
a hefty EC$ 15 million in a project that includes piping water
from Big Gut to the industrial estate at Campden Park, where it
will be bottled for export.
There
have been questions, in many quarters, over the jobs - variously
reported as 136, 150, 176 - the project is expected to generate.
Since the infamous mathematical calculi: 'one from ten leaves
nought' by Trinidad and Tobago's Eric Williams, after Jamaica
broke away from the ill-fated West Indies Federation in 1962,
this region's political arithmetic always seems at variance with
Caribbean reality.
But
job creation is not at the heart of Big Gut controversy. It has
more to with perception: who owns the Big Gut water and why should
Government attempt to deprive Layou villagers of what they consider
to be theirs - water in its natural and purest form in St. Vincent
and the Grenadines and presumably elsewhere in the Caribbean.
Government
erred. If MP Louis Straker is a true representative of the people,
elected, among other things, to listen to and articulate his constituents'
concerns - and as one residing in Layou - he ought to have know
the sentiments of villagers and their emotional attachment to
the Big Gut water catchment, erected on lands said to have been
donated by villagers.
He
ought to have discussed, as an obligation, the bottled water project
with them - not with a handful of so-called leaders 'who would
be able to comprehend the details' of what he was saying but with
those whom he asked for their votes just more than two years ago.
One
does not have to be a high school or university graduate to understand
the basics of earning foreign exchange by exporting bottled water
from Big Gut. Rather than avoiding enraged constituents, angered
because they were not consulted about what was happening in their
village, MP Straker should have explained the project - before
it was officially announced - and how it was expected to benefit
Layou and St. Vincent and the Grenadines at a public (town hall
type) meeting in his constituency.
It
is a sad commentary indeed that an elected representative should
think that matters which affect or expected to affect peoples'
lives are 'too high' for those at the constituency level - and
still expect to solicit votes from the uneducated and the unenlightened.
It
is not too late. The damage can still be repaired. Straker still
has a chance to meet his constituents and talk to them about the
water project. Not all will agree but they will understand if
they are adequately informed.
No
investor is comfortable risking his millions in a venture that
is dogged by political or other controversy and placard-bearing
demonstrations in small Third World countries. Those holding the
purse in Aqua Caribe are no exception.
St.
Vincent and the Grenadines could well be left holding an empty
bucket.
The
Vincentian, 6 June 2003
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