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Over the last few months, we’ve been following the massive negative impact that the ongoing drought has been having on the country. We took you to the Orange Walk District where corn farmers lost millions of dollars because the crop did not mature.

And, as you’ve been seeing, the New River in the Orange Walk District is stagnant and suffocating. 

Up to about 2 weeks ago, the pollution in the river was the worst that residents have ever seen it in their lifetimes. 

The pollution was caused by wastewater from multiple sources, which then poisoned the water column. The condition of the river was compounded by the drought, since no rainwater was available to keep it flowing. 

Back when we were following the plight of the corn farmers from Blue Creek Village, Agriculture CEO Jose Alpuche alerted us to the fact that farmers from other agricultural sub-sectors across the nation were also hard hit. The Ministry of Agriculture has since conducted a survey of the entire farming community within the 6 districts, and their data indicates that the entire agro-productive sector is facing approximately 50 million dollars in losses due to the drought in these last few months. 

That’s on the level of a national emergency, and today, the Prime Minister called a press conference to announce that his government is treating the plight of the farmers as such. Here’s what he had to say in his opening remarks at the press conference:

Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"We’re here to talk about 2 things, number 1, this infernal drought, which has so confounded us. The Ministry of Agriculture puts the losses suffered in consequence of the drought currently as being in excess of 50 million dollars. And so, I thought it important and timely. Indeed, we may have waited a little too long already to come before you, but we were trying to get our ducks in a row. Point is that if it is time and overtime that we say to the members of the media and the members of the public what it is that the authorities are doing to deal with this emergency."

"That is why I also needed to make this particular announcement this morning, including the declaration of a partial state of emergency. So, I want to advise the media and the public that we have - the Solicitor General is preparing a statutory instrument that will be sent to the Governor-General under the constitution, in terms of natural disaster occurrences. Those sorts of events can trigger the declaration of a state of emergency. And it has nothing to do with the state of emergencies for criminal conduct, or for rioting. This is simply because of the natural disaster crisis. But, that declaration will extend to the Belize, Cayo, Orange Walk, and Corozal Districts."

"In making that declaration, we’re doing no more than conceding, or formalizing what is a fact. It is an emergency, when I as I say, we can lose 50 million dollars, and when farmers see their livelihoods being squeezed, they have no idea of how they will repay their loans. That is the quintessential definition, in my view, of an emergency."