Health and Environment Minister Molwyn Joseph is denying claims that Chinese investor Yida Zhang has been dredging on Guiana Island and causing serious damage to the ecology.
Joseph says that Chief Environment Officer Diane Black-Layne has reported that the investor is conducting his work within the established rules and parameters.
He says, however, that there was one concern – the removal of grass from the seabed – and this is being addressed.
But in the same breath, the Minister sought to deny the obvious: that the removal of grass from the seabed would cause some environmental damage. He also says the process is not considered to be dredging.
Meanwhile, a number of concerned citizens, several interest groups, and George Wehner, the United Progressive Party’s Spokesperson on the Environment, have posted on social media videos of the alleged dredging.
Further, a documentary recently released by the Observer Group shows the environmental damage and documents the dredging done by YIDA. Yet, the Minister describes this as sensationalism.
He says he has worked with that journalist in the past, and that she should have made more aggressive attempts to contact the relevant government agencies in order to present an unbiased report.
However, Ellesha George, the maker of the documentary, indicated that she had made many attempts to speak with the authorities, all of which proved futile.
