By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

A LOCAL environmentalist has said he will be the first to stop any tractor attempting to remove sand from this country to aid Florida beaches from erosion, as he called on government officials to condemn international news reports that the US has received approval to study bringing Bahamian sand to their beaches.

Joseph Darville, part of environmental group Save the Bays, called any move in this regard “morally reprehensible”.

He told The Tribune that the thought of such an agreement being fast tracked and signed-off on by the government without mention to the Bahamian people made him “ill”.

According to the Florida Sun Sentinel, the 2016 Water Resources Development Act, signed by US President Barack Obama last month, approved studies to be carried out to determine the feasibility of transporting sand from other countries and territories around the world to coastal cities in America that have been affected by erosion in recent years.

The Bahamas was named among the potential sources for sand.

There has been no confirmation on the study locally, but the story has been carried by several media entities in the US, which have mentioned the Bahamas as a potential sand source.

Mr Darville told The Tribune that these reports must be condemned by Bahamian officials, saying the country remains in need of “its own protection” from coastal erosion, and any move to “give away sand” would place the Bahamas in a position to “further destroy itself for porridge.”

“What the hell, if this is in fact the case, what was all the talk about in New York and Paris?”

Mr Darville was referring to two recent international addresses made by key representatives of the country to raise awareness of climate change and its effects on coastal communities.

Speaking at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations (UN) Convention on Climate Change in Paris, France, Prime Minister Perry Christie urged world leaders to adopt an “internationally legally binding agreement” that would “acknowledge and make provisions for the special circumstances” of small island development states (SIDS) and allow “for the flexibility needed to overcome limited human, financial and technical capacities.”

As such, Mr Christie implored the world’s nations to achieve the legally binding and universal agreement on climate change to “send a clear message to the world that we will fight for countries like The Bahamas to stay on the map into the next century.”

Mr Darville on Tuesday said he would be flabbergasted if the government would entertain any discussions about dredging sand in The Bahamas as a means to “protect someone else’s shoreline.”

He said: “We are basically at sea-level. If we venture down this road, 80 per cent of our islands will be under water by the end of the century.”

Mr Darville added: “Florida, they are being proactive. I hate to put it like this, they couldn’t care less what happens to our islands. After all, we are basically being touted to be a nation for sale.”

According to a Naples Daily News investigative piece published in 2016 through the Associated Press - “Shrinking Shores” - Miami-Dade and Broward counties in Florida have exhausted their deposits of available offshore sand, leaving only sand that is too far offshore to retrieve or is nestled among protected reefs or other underwater marine features.

The report went on to note that enough sand to last 50 years had been discovered, but beach project managers told the Daily News the sand is too dark and risks triggering sand wars with other coastal countries.

Project managers said Bahamian sand is the region’s best chance to end expensive and inefficient sand hauls from inland mines.

But a ban, backed by the US dredging industry, on spending federal money on beach projects that use foreign sand stood in the way. Coastal communities in the US can ill afford to forgo federal money for their beaches, the Daily News reported.

That ban was superseded by President Obama’s Water Resources Development Act.

Mr Darville added: “I am shocked to say the least. I am totally, unequivocally opposed to this and it is something I am going to march for on Majority Rule Day. No way will we allow this to happen.

“How in God’s name are we protecting our country? How is the government entertaining this? This is more reprehensible than what was being discussed with the Chinese with respect to fishing. We might as well say take the whole kit and caboodle. This is morally reprehensible.”

The Bahamas has undertaken several initiatives in recent years to offset and guard against erosion at beaches across the country.

To that end, several beaches in New Providence were realigned to prohibit extreme waves from moving in to shorelines, which hastened erosion. Montagu and Saunders Beach are the two most recent beaches to undergo such realignments.