Faber did know more about something happening in his own back yard - which is the Krooman Lagoon, a water cachment area, wetland and nature reserve in the Collet Division.
Now, when we say nature reserve, you may think of waterfalls and rolling hills; but, don’t get it twisted; Krooman looks like a swamp, and very low income housing is thrown up all around it.
Earlier this week the Mayor Bernard Wagner took some Engineers from the UK into the area to find ways of providing affordable housing for city residents.
According to the council’s Facebook page, they plan to map the area “to design and present a plan to their investment board in London.” Big plans, but the area rep today told us, not so fast:…
Hon. Patrick Faber - Deputy Prime Minister
"I have not been consulted by the mayor on that. You're right, it is in my constituency and you will the history of the Krooman lagoon and you know my position from then, it has not changed. The engineers, the experts tell you that Krooman is a natural catchment for waters that drain off from other parts of the city and that it would be a disaster if they fill that lagoon to put housing and other kind of developments on. In fact, as it is now, we have a lot of squatters on that land, it continues to increase and I continue to warn them that is not something that I approve of. It's a very touchy situation when you have residence, especially residence who are experiencing extreme poverty and you tell them listen you can't continue to live here, it would be barbaric almost to go and uproot them but it is not safe. So I do not support the development of that lagoon by filling it in and I remind folks that it is a reserve, it's government land, so that what makes it even more amazing that the mayor thinks that he can do something on there. It is government land, it is not Belize City land and it is a reserve, so you'd have to de-reserve it and issue it through some kind of government process which has nothing to do with the city council if that is the case. So he's a bit farfetched in terms of doing that, if that is what he's saying.”
Faber says he hopes he has spoken too soon, and that the Mayor has plans to consult him. Faber is the four term area rep for Collet.
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