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The second loan motion that was debated in the Senate today was another from the IDB for 20 million Belize dollars. 

It's called the Contingent Loan for Natural Disaster Emergencies, and it is supposed to be used in times of natural disasters to, quote, "enhance the comprehensive disaster risk management of Belize by fostering improvements in five main areas disaster risk governance, risk identification, risk reduction, disaster preparedness, and financial protection." End quote.

Here's what the NGO and Business Senators had to say about this one:

Hon. Osmany Salas - NGO Senator
"I rise to give my strong support to this loan motion. It goes without saying that being in the middle of the hurricane belt, we need as much of this type of support as possible. This is the one major question that I had, the one item that I was not able to clarify, that I think it would be useful for us all to know. If we look at the second page of the draft loan contracts section 103, special definitions section B, it states: Eligible event means the event that meets the characteristics and conditions of the type, location and intensity specifically described in the terms and conditions of coverage, including as annex one of the operating regulations. No matter how hard I tried, and I must say I reached out to the Minister of Finance, they didn't respond but I was not able to get a copy of the operating regulations, so that we will be clear what constitutes an eligible event. We might say, it's obvious - well it's not completely obvious and as an example, we have seen our beaches over the past couple years under direct attack from sargassum. There are many that are now saying and advocating that we treat this sargassum influx as an emergency from national events, it's a naturally occurring situation and it has created a major emergency. It would have been good to see if this one of those eligible events, as it has been having a direct toll on our economy."

Hon. Mark Lizarraga - Business Senator
"The Government of Belize is embarking on another loan today of some 20 million Belize dollars for what it calls is a contingent loan facility for natural disaster emergencies. It identifies 5 areas that it is targeting with these funds. It identifies disaster risk management governance and I can't tell you what that means. It identifies risk identification; I can't tell you what that means. Risk reduction, I can't tell you what that means and how deep it goes because this is very open ended. It says disaster preparedness and I can't tell you what is the plan and it tells you financial protection and I don't know in what areas and how. Unlike the previous loan motion that we saw, that clearly articulated what these sums of monies were going to be used for, there is absolutely silenced in the documents that we were presented as to how and what is the strategy in each of the 5 areas and how much money will be intended for these areas. We don't know what the plan is, it's very loose."