BELMOPAN, Belize (CMC) — The Belize Fund for a Sustainable Future is providing a grant of BDZ$250,000 to the Belize Hotel Association (BHA) and the Belize Tourism and Industries Association (BTIA) to help the country deal with the impact of the sargassum along the coastlines.

“This is really a national challenge or a national emergency that needed to be addressed, and the entire board agreed that it is important. And we had recently finalised our emergency response grants window,” said Leandra Cho-Ricketts, the executive director of the Belize Fund.

She said a decision was taken for the fund to engage with the blue economy and the Ministry of Tourism “to see how they can help support and provide some relief to this issue”.

“And it is, as we’ve all heard, it’s here for as long as we are facing these challenges globally. And so the fund beyond this support will be looking at mechanisms to continue to provide some support,” she added.

The Belize Fund has allocated the quarter million dollars towards the cleanup relief efforts, and the BTIA and the BHA are calling on businesses in impacted areas in San Pedro, Caye Caulker, Placencia, Hopkins, Seine Bight and other offshore islands to apply for the grant of up to BDZ$5,000.

BTIA Executive Director Linette Canto in explaining the process governing the grants, said, “You don’t have to be a member of any of the two organisations to be able to get this support. The criteria is that you need to be along the coastline. You need to be in a business, an enterprise that is already trying to fight the sargassum situation.”

BHA President Reynaldo Malik said the efforts are to deal with the sargassum reaching the land.

“Once it gets to shore and it locks up onto that beach, then your primary resource is going to be human resource. So we anticipate that the vast majority of the applications are going to be focused on using the grant money to fund extra labour.”

He said money will also be used to buy equipment, noting that “even with the human resource, you do need things like wheelbarrows and proper rakes”.

Since 2011, sargassum has been washing up on Belize’s shores, but residents say this year, the invasion is on another level.