Japan has stepped in to help the Caribbean deal with its Sargassum seaweed problem.
For many years, the encroaching seaweed has been washing ashore, often causing smelly build-up as well as adversely affecting local sea life. The phenomenon has been attributed to climate change.
Yesterday, Japan and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed a three-year, US$12.3 million Project For Strengthening Sargassum Management Capacities in the Caribbean, at UN House, Marine Gardens, Christ Church. It involves six countries – Barbados, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and St Lucia. Each will receive around US$2 million in equipment and expertise.
Ambassador of Japan to Barbados Teruhiko Shinada said the donation would include harvesters, beach rakes, boats, tractors, dump trucks, floating booms and barriers. As Japan is also an island, they understood the importance of marine preservation and coastal protection, he said. (CA)
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