Newsday Reporter
Nathisha Char-Pantin, Secretary of Food Security, Natural Resources and Sustainable Development, was the leader of a beach clean-up in her electoral district, Bagatelle/Bacolet, which took place on Sunday.
Over 70 volunteers braved the early-morning showers to clean Scarborough’s Blue Haven and Bacolet beaches. They arrived at 6 a.m. with rakes and shovels, as well as garbage bags.
These beaches aren’t the most visited on the island. However the closure of beaches during the pandemic resulted a pileup garbage and overgrown bushes.
These two locations received over 100 garbage bags. The highest amount of waste collected was plastic items like bags, cups, plates, cups, and plates, as well as food wrappers.
The Sunday morning beach football “sweaters”, who arrived at Bacolet beach to assist in the clean-up, also helped.
A spokesperson for the footballers said that they had no problem lending support. It was a good thing that they did, as the place was very bad. Now it looks nice. They should have garbage bins, though.
Garbage trucks arrived at both locations to collect the waste materials.
The majority of the volunteers were residents of the electoral area and community-based organizations, such as Scarborough Police Youth Clubs or Mason Hall.
Tobago House of Assembly provided technical support through the department of Natural Resources, Forestry, Wetlands Field Unit, and the Tobago Recycling Unit. Volunteers were also offered light refreshments.
Charles-Pantin, who was present during the clean-up, said, “This initiative aims to heighten awareness to conserve and cease degradation on our beaches.
“Therefore, the beach clean-up is a step into the development and maintenance of our environment, it is community-based and voluntary work. We are focusing our efforts on the lowest-hanging fruit due to our financial situation. It’s our community and our home, we must unite and volunteer. This will foster a sense of community pride.
“Our electoral district must be the best, in terms of beautification and keeping a clean and green atmosphere.”
Charles-Pantin was busy on Sunday. The area representative also launched an initiative to build community bins at Cradley Trace in Mason Hall.
“This project will help to improve the aesthetics of the roadside by having a general area to put residential waste.”
Charles-Pantin stated that a property owner who had been plagued by illegal waste disposal gave permission to build the community bin.
Residents can also look forward for another environmental project in their near future. Charles-Pantin said that she has plans to create a green area to plant trees, grass, and other vegetation in the area.
