By DENISE MAYCOCK

Tribune Freeport Reporter

dmaycock@tribunemedia.net

THE Grand Bahama Environmental Association welcomes the appointment of attorney Romauld Ferreira as the new minister of environment and pledges its full support to the ministry’s initiatives.

Shuffel Hepburn, GBEA executive, said the association has read the Free National Movement’s manifesto and its plans for the environment, particularly to enact legislation for the creation of an Environment Authority.

He said that the Department of Environmental Health Services (DEHS) and the Bahamas Environment, Science & Technology (BEST) Commission are mere “rubber stamp” agencies.

“These departments are mere rubber stamps as it relates to the issues of pollution, and this must change,” he stressed.

Mr Hepburn said the FNM’s manifesto calls for the more focused attention of policies applicable to the Department of Environmental Health and the government’s BEST Commission.

He said that tourism is the country’s number one industry and the environment is very important to the sector.

“If the tourist world gets the understanding that we are not taking care of our drinking, fishing and swimming water, it will have a significantly negative impact on our tourism product,” Mr Hepburn stressed.

“Because of this fact it is expedient for our government to do something about the pollution in Grand Bahama, and do it now.”

Mr Hepburn is confident that Mr Ferreira will work to protect the environment.

“For some years, he has been actively taking on environmental issues. Now he will be at the helm of the government’s environmental ministry,” he said.

The environmental activist said the FNM had outlined plans in its manifesto to promote Grand Bahama as an “eco-tourism sanctuary”.

“In order for this to happen, it is imperative that the government rein in the industrial plants on the island of Grand Bahama immediately. The Minnis government will need to use all the resources available to study our situation in order to make this goal achievable,” he said.

Mr Hepburn said the FNM’s also promised “to upgrade the country’s capacity to properly test emissions that impact the environment”.

In addition to concerns about greenhouse gasses, he indicated that the government must address the situation concerning chemical emissions by industrial plants in Grand Bahama.

He claims that the present e-Nose system put in place by the former Progressive Liberal Party government was installed too high and needs to be adjusted at the height of human beings at ground level.

“These detectors are 18 feet in the air and cannot be considered true measuring devices,” he said.

Another promise that the GBEA has taken note of in the FNM’s manifesto is the establishment of a “framework for provisions of the mandatory and immediate release of information in cases of environmental incidents”.

“This is simply something that does not exist, and has never existed here in Grand Bahama. Historically, this is the area of the greatest cover up in the history of our island and country,” he said.