Save The Bays urges the public to attend Clifton Town Meeting

Mon, Jul 7th 2014, 03:55 PM

Save The Bays (STB), the grassroots social and environmental advocacy group that is taking The Bahamas by storm, has urged all members of the public to attend tonight’s town meeting on the future of Clifton Bay. 

Congratulating the Coalition to Save Clifton for organizing the event, STB director of education Joseph Darville said the meeting is an important step in the fight to protect an area of enormous ecological and social significance.

“Every Bahamian who can should turn up to this vital town meeting,” said Darville. “There are so many issues of public importance – from industrial pollution to unregulated development – going on at Clifton.

“The future of this unique cultural and environmental treasure should matter not just to New Providence residents, but every citizen of The Bahamas.”

Darville explained that Clifton is home to everything from key fish spawning wetlands and abundant coral reef systems, to the capital’s first national heritage park and one of the last public access beaches in New Providence. It also contains important historic sites that go back more than a thousand years.

These cultural and environmental resources, which Darville, the Bahamas Director of Waterkeeper Alliance International, said belong to all Bahamians, are being systematically decimated by constant oil and gas leaks from the industrial complex at Clifton Pier.

As for the once abundant swath of sand known as Jaws Beach, it has been steadily eroded away as a result unauthorized marine works at the residential and resort property known as Nygard Cay.

Since it was acquired by Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard in 1984, the property has more than doubled in size by claiming land from the seabed without the proper permits, restricting the natural flow of sand to Jaws Beach in the process.

The former FNM government advised Nygard to return the coastline to its original parameters, but he failed to do so, and is now applying to the current PLP government for permission to rebuild several structures destroyed in a 2009 fire and further extend his property into Clifton Bay.

The meeting is scheduled for 7.30pm at the BCPOU Hall on Farrington Road under the theme “This sea park must be saves for our children.”

Coalition to Save Clifton head Rev. CB Moss said he will use the opportunity to furnish Bahamians with all the facts and encourage them to help protect the area for the benefit of future generations.

“We cannot allow our heritage to be taken away without a fight,” he said.

Rev. CB Moss (left) visiting Jaws Beach with Save The Bays Education Director and Bahamas Waterkeeper Director Joseph Darville. Darville urged all members of the public to attend the July 7 town meeting at BCPOU on Farrington Road to be hosted by Moss and the Coalition to Save Clifton on the future of the ecologically important Clifton Bay area. The meeting starts at 7:30 pm.

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