Garbage moves over for cleaner surfing

BOCAS DEL TORO. Authorities have finally come to grip the garbage problem in Bocas del Toro main island. Salomon Shamah, general manager of the Tourism Authority (ATP) visited the dumping site last week with his team and Bocas del Toro Mayor Jose Anderson. They met with journalists on the site to start the cleaning and removal of the garbage.

Thirty thousand people living in Colon Island produce more than four tons of garbage monthly and an ill placed garbage dump on the island province has been keeping off surfers and visitors many years. The relocation of the dumping site will have a cost of $30,000.

Both Shamah and Anderson said that the first step to achieving this goal was to hire equipment and personnel to clear the road and to put distance between the pollutants and the ocean. The works also include a sanitary landfill. Garbage from the nearby islands will be placed in a new five hectares lot the institutions have rented for a period of five years.

Anderson, said he was grateful for ATP’s rapid response to a problem they have endured for more than 25 years at the cost of tourism development. A program top educate the residents is part of this initiative and imperative as the garbage comes from them.

“We are now recycling plastic and material, and we have named Shamah godfather of the Bocas del Toro islands”. “Bluff beach has world class waves “ said Shamah of the main surfing beach of the Colon island. Tourism history has showed that surfing has the potential to turn places like this into great touristic destinations.