TCI News
TCI: ‘Wheelanders’ fed-up with toxic air from dump site
#Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands – September 27, 2019 — Even right now the air is stink; putrid with the smell of a mix of garbage and smoke and residents are threatening to protest in the name of good health and quality living for themselves and their families.
“The situation is getting worse. The disposal of waste is polluting the air we breathe and they have no alternative to get rid of the waste here.”
A comment from a resident of Belglade Parker Gardens, who like many of her neighbours, no longer believe the dump is plagued by surrounding coal kilns or spot fires within it. This resident, a mother of four, believes the dump is being lit to cope with the overwhelming amounts of rubbish coming in from across the fast-developing island of Providenciales.
Photographs used to support the comments of this news report were shared with Magnetic Media by a male home owner of the community; he prefers to remain anonymous.
The home owners of the phase one affordable housing are getting the worst of the smoke, they especially from dusk to dawn.
“Last night was the worst. I turned on my A/c and my entire bedroom was in smoke. I’m ready to work on my placard to go protest if need be.”
The woman says her son is coughing continuously now. She too has developed sinusitis since last September as a result of the consistent burning of the dump, she said. “The slightest smoke and other air particles trigger my sinus. I have no recourse, no one is responsible enough to take charge of this recurring plight.”
The sentiments of this resident are common and have been taken to government officials before. In fact, a meeting was granted to residents of both Belglade Parker Gardens and Millennium Heights, where Minister of Health, Edwin Astwood and his Permanent Secretary, Desiree Lewis were present with the Environmental Health Director, Kenrick Neely and the Member of Parliament, Delroy Williams. At the time, the MP was acting Premier.
Among the actions which were to be taken as a result of the meeting, which was held at the Office the Premier in Providenciales in November 2018, was an air quality test.
It was also in 2018 that the Turks and Caicos Island Cabinet approved a loan for a solid waste management consultancy through the Caribbean Development Bank.
Member of Parliament for Wheeland, Delroy Williams has informed Magnetic Media that over the weekend government officials, including the Premier Sharlene Robinson, will update the thousands of residents affected by the toxic air, on a resolution.
The Providenciales landfill or dump is currently being managed by the Ministry of Health after the contract for Turks and Caicos Environmental Management expired as of October 28, 2018. ((CORRECTED))
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#TurksandCaicos, June 25, 2022 – These days anything can be online, even a plant clinic! The Turks and Caicos Islands Department of Agriculture wants to help budding and experienced farmers with any plant issues they may have and their new Online Plant Clinic is their solution to help as many Islanders as possible.
Launched on Thursday, June 16 the clinic will operate through Facebook. Individuals with sick plants or pest issues
will be required to take a photo of the issue and upload that photo to the department of Agriculture’s Facebook page.
Answers to issues will be given once a month, on every third Thursday, via a public video so all Islanders can have access. The launch was attended by Chief Plant Protection Officer-CPPO Roneta Huntley Thomas, Director of Agriculture Wilhelmina Kissoonsingh, Minister of Agriculture Josephine Connolly, and Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture Mrs. Cheryl Ann Jones.
Connolly urged residents to “grow your own food and grow TCI.”
Attendees of the launch were allowed to participate in games trying to identify different diseases for a chance at prizes. Residents can now immediately start sending in their photos on the Facebook page.
By Dana Malcolm
Staff Writer
#Jamaica, June 25, 2022 – As the Turks and Caicos and Jamaica celebrated a new connection on June 16th as Intercaribbean Airways launched their newest flight to Boscobel, St Mary, half an hour from the famous city of Ocho Rios on Jamaica’s North Coast.
The Ian Fleming Airport is named for the famous author who penned the James Bo
nd series just miles away from the airport. Never one to miss a theme, InterCaribbean dubbed their flight the JY 007.
The 007 departed Providenciales at 9:30 am Thursday (June 16) with Lyndon Gardiner, Chairman of InterCaribbean Airways; Trevor Sadler, InterCaribbean Airways CEO; Chris and Kayon Stokes of NCS Money Services; Team Beaches TCI, some media namely SunTCI and Magnetic Media as well as a few Jamaicans anxious to get home.
The 007, Ian Fleming Airport’s first international commercial flight, was received in Jamaica with much fanfare. It was met by a Jamaican delegation including Audley Shaw, Minister of Transport for Jamaica and Edmund Bartlett, Jamaica’s Tourism Minister and a cheerful water cannon spurt to sweeten the arrival of the first international flight at Ian Fleming.
Bartlett was enthusiastic about the prospects that Inter-Caribbean was bringing to Jamaica.
“The presence today of this inaugural flight from a Caribbean island into Boscobel is a bigger statement than what has been made because what it does is to put together the idea of connectivity in a material way. It is how we as a region are going to be able to connect with each other in a way that brings economic value and prosperity to each other and that’s the power of this movement that begins today.”
The minister noted that Tourism was a booming business if only we were aware of how to take charge of it.
“We are about ideas and how to convert ideas into things that have a material value, we are the most consumption-driven activity on planet earth. “ he added “the next critical consideration that has to be looked at …is that we need a
single visa regime for touristic purposes that can be provided for visitors coming into your space… a CARICOM visa that allows you entry into all the CARICOM countries.”
Gardiner expressed his excitement for the venture telling the media,“Only the sun covers the Caribbean better than we do.” He also told the gathered press. “We will now have the ability to bring people from across the Caribbean, whether it be for business, pleasure, or furthering multi-destination vacations, by offering Boscobel residents and visitors direct service across the Caribbean and vice versa.”
InterCaribbean Airways will run their flight monthly initially and then upgrade to weekly flights. It would be the third flight between Turks and Caicos and Jamaica; already Kingston and Montego Bay are serviced by the airline based in Providenciales, TCI.
American Airlines and QCAS Aero are also scheduled to begin flights to the Ian Fleming International this year.
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