Maritime Affairs Minister appeals for end to late-night Accra beach dumping

Reckless dumping on Accra beach, one of the country’s iconic beaches for visitors, prompted the minister for maritime affairs, Kirk Humphrey, to issue a cease and desist appeal.

While speaking at a prize-giving ceremony for Maritime Day at the Barbados Port Inc., Cube Blue, Humphrey said the disturbing situation had been brought to his attention recently, after repeated complaints about the act being carried out late at night.

Humphrey said: “Somebody sent me something on Accra, a whole set of garbage on Accra… the NCC (National Conservation Commission) cleared Accra twice in the week. There was litter again on the weekend, the NCC cleared Accra over the weekend, there was litter again the following day – somebody is emerging in the middle of the night and just dumping.

“Now we are not putting a No Dumping sign, but we got to do better than this. We can’t be telling the world that we are concerned about the environment, we are putting pressure on the international systems, and within our own borders, we are not even respecting our neighbours, that has to change.”

The minister then signalled a warning to the perpetrator, and stressed that the area will soon be monitored more regularly with the hope of preventing future illegal dumping, or capturing the guilty party in the act.

He said: “Whoever it is that is responsible for what is happening at Accra, I am asking you now to stop. Minister of the Environment [Adrian Forde] and myself have spoken, I have asked them to put cameras or to monitor it, because it really has to stop, and the idea that we can just litter indiscriminately across Barbados has to stop.

“Again it concerned me because a lot of this litter and plastic, a lot of this ends up in the ocean.” (SB)