Japan assists Punta Gorda

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The Embassy of Japan signed a BZ$404,000.00 Grant Contract with the Punta Gorda Town Council on Thursday under the Grant Assistance for Grass-Roots Human Security Project. His Excellency Hiroyuki Kubota, Ambassador of Japan to Belize, signed the Grant Contract with the Mayor of Punta Gorda Town Ashton McKenzie on Thursday morning at the Bull Frog Inn in the Garden City.
Under the Project, two Garbage trucks will be procured for Punta Gorda Town. One of the new trucks is a compactor truck and the other is a dump truck, which will be a game changer for the Punta Gorda Town Council. These trucks will be imported within the next few months.
Japan’s International Cooperation Agency JICA has put in some very strict protocols so as to ensure that there is transparency and accountability and that the people of Punta Gorda get value for dollars.
His Excellency Hiroyuki Kubota in a brief speech on Thursday said that Japan’s ongoing partnerships with Belize demonstrates commitment. Mr. Kubota also stated that waste management is a global challenge and that Japan would like to see a reduction of plastic waste going into the Caribbean sea.
His Worship Mayor Ashton McKenzie, Mayor of Punta Gorda Town, expressed to the Guardian that for his Town, the signing of the documents for the two trucks was a momentous occasion. He explained that the municipal body does not always have the resources that is needed in order to expedite its duties. The two compactor trucks that the Punta Gorda Town Council previously had were donated approximately a year and a half ago and were subject to a great deal of mechanical issues, which made it even more costly to the Council.
“The way we dispose garbage presently, we do house to house collection on a daily basis, we have a schedule by members of the sanitation department and presently garbage for residents is collected once a week and businesses and hotspots are done daily so with these added equipment, it will definitely enhance our capability to collect garbage more frequently for residents,” said Mayor McKenzie, having raised the salaries of his sanitation workers by 15%.
The Punta Gorda Town Council will also be able to collect larger pieces of garbage. “… as well as ensure that we are able to deal with non-household refuse. Something that we struggle a lot it has to do with non-household, people are cutting down these large trees. We have instances with old vehicles, old scrap metals; those cannot go into the compactor truck so this dump truck will facilitate us in being able to dispose of our waste such as those that I mentioned.”
Periodically, the Punta Gorda Town Council has also had issues with the ever encroaching sargassum. So the two trucks will now assist with beach cleanup as well. Given that the Toledo District is subject to receiving a lot of rainfall, the Council has also had issues with mosquito related diseases such as dengue. In the past they would rent a truck to do neighborhood or zone clean-ups. With the new mobile resources from Japan they will now be able to do that independently at a much cheaper cost.