Cane Garden Bay and Brewers Bay may look beautiful, but that doesn’t mean the two areas don’t have environmental problems.

At a public meeting at the Cane Garden Bay Community Centre on Thursday night, Angela BurnettPenn — an environmental officer with the Conservation and Fisheries Department — explained that flooding, pollution and beach erosion threaten both locales.

The Integrated Coastal and Watershed Stabilisation Project, however, aims to help prevent and reduce the damage.  

Ms. Penn said the project, which is funded by the European Union and spearheaded regionally by the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, has two phases that are estimated to cost a total of $704,000.

The project’s first phase, which began Jan. 20 and is expected to run until next month, involves conducting studies and designing pilot projects.

The second phase, which is expected to start at the end of 2016 and run for two years, involves implementing the pilot projects.

David Smith, the managing director of Smith Warner International — the firm contracted to study the areas — said his team made various recommendations: advancing the shorelines, planting mangroves, creating or rehabilitating coral reefs, and supporting eco-systems that are under stress, among others.

Deputy Premier Dr. Kedrick Pickering, the minister of natural resources and labour, expressed his support for the ICWSP in a recent press release.

“The Integrated Coastal and Watershed Stabilisation Project is one that has the full support of my ministry,” he said. “The protection of our natural resources is high on the agenda of this ministry, and I think that it should be a topic of importance to everyone in this BVI community.”

See the May 26, 2016 edition for full coverage.

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