Government mulls dedicated sargassum unit

Government is exploring new measures to tackle the growing sargassum problem, including the possible establishment of a dedicated sargassum management unit and the installation of offshore barriers to stop the seaweed before it reaches Barbados’ beaches.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Environment Santia Bradshaw said officials are examining new technology and specialised offshore booms that could intercept sargassum in near-shore waters, reducing the volume reaching the coastline.

Bradshaw made the comments while visiting Oistins with representatives of Dominican Republic-based DESMI RO-Clean, which is assisting officials in assessing sustainable approaches to sargassum management.

The company is helping to identify areas most affected by the seaweed and working with technical teams to determine the equipment and systems needed to manage it.

Bradshaw said: “We met with the DESMI team and they were able to show us some of the beaches where some of their booms, which essentially is a piece of mechanism, a net essentially that stops the sargassum from coming into the nearshore.”

Barbados had also examined other solutions used in the region but found the DESMI booms to be more effective, she added.

“In some cases because of the tidal activity you may see some additional sargassum coming through the nets, and in those cases, you saw a second set of nets basically double booming to be able to allow for the sargassum to be reduced in coming to the shore.”

But the deputy prime minister, who is also responsible for natural beautification, said government was looking beyond simply removing sargassum from beaches after it arrives.

“The other thing we recognise is that this manual collection alone cannot be the future of how Barbados deals with sargassum,” she said.

The proposed dedicated sargassum unit would operate similarly to the National Conservation Commission’s role in maintaining parks and beaches and its dedicated programme for gullies.

“We now want to move to using science along with the technology and along with the manual teams to be able to have an industry out of sargassum,” Bradshaw said.

She said the objective was to create opportunities for Barbadians to earn a living from the resource while exploring ways to transform sargassum into useful products.

“That allows, certainly our local people to be able to make a living from it, but also if we can export it to other countries and we can turn it into some kind of material or effective use to be able to allow that to happen so Barbados can generate revenue.”.

Bradshaw said the government was also examining investment opportunities to attract investors.

“I think one of the discussions we have also been having as well is looking at all the investment mechanisms to allow potential investors to see Barbados as an attractive destination for the investment in sargassum.

“The truth is you have to have a lot of sargassum in order to make an industry of it or to really make an effective use of it and therefore those discussions have been ongoing.”

Despite the search for new approaches, Bradshaw cautioned that Barbados and other Caribbean countries had yet to find a definitive solution to prevent sargassum from reaching their shores.

“We have not to date found a solution either in Barbados or across the entire Caribbean that we can say with all sincerity that we have found a solution to the problem of stopping sargassum from coming to our shores.

“What we have seen across the region is attempts to mitigate the impact of the sargassum coming to the shores.”

Bradshaw said this was particularly important for Caribbean countries that depend heavily on tourism and need to maintain their beaches for residents and visitors.

She also pointed to a recently completed programme involving the Japanese Government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which provided several Caribbean countries with specialised equipment to assist with beach clean-up.

The equipment included all-terrain vehicles, beach rakes, harvesters and boats.

“That programme has come to an end,” Bradshaw said. Barbados had continued exploring other options after she visited the Dominican Republic with the NCC’s Ryan Als and Damian Prescott of Export Barbados to see first-hand how the country was dealing with sargassum.

She described the Dominican Republic as “one of the leaders in addressing the collection of sargassum on the shores” and said the latest visit was intended to help Barbados determine how similar approaches could be adapted here. 

(SB)