Preparation of this report would not have been possible were it not for the kind assistance from the National Pro-Tem Water Commission and without the documents and other information provided by Mr. Martin Alegria, Mrs. Malikah Cardona and Mr. David Reynolds, Mr. Rony Maza and Mr. Anselmo Castañeda.

Ms. Nichola Cho kindly assisted with the review of the existing legislation. A lot of information was also gleaned from many of the references listed at the end of this report.

I also thank Mrs. Estelita Chan for her assistance with the typing copying and scanning.

For all those who assisted in any way, many thanks.

December 5, 2005

Aware of the need to overcome fragmentation in the existing system of Water Resources Management so as to ensure the planned allocation, development and protection of available water resources, the Government of Belize requested the assistance of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to help formulate a National Resources Management Policy and Implementing Legislation.¹ The FAO approved a project which comprised a Water Management Policy and a Water Legislation Component. ² Both the draft policy and legislation were prepared and presented in 1994.

The policy Goals and objectives were stated as follows:

Specific policies were put forward under four headings:

Specific Policy

Specific Policy

Specific Policy

Specific Policy

It is to be noted that at a meeting dated 24^th November 2005 with the Pro-Tem Water Commission the said Commission suggested that this be reworded to read as follows:

The specific objectives for Water Resources Management were stated (and these have been concisely paraphrased) as:

To this list the Pro-Tem Water Commission has recommended that a fourteenth be added designed to educate and sensitize the public with regards to the wise and efficient management and use of water.

A close analysis of the specific policies shows that what they speak to is the planned and coordinated development of the nation’s water resources and water allocation via an institutional framework. While not so precisely framed, that is to say, integrated water resources management, the words "sustainable use" "planned and coordinated manner" can only be referring to that approach in the use and management of the water resources. The full wording of objectives 10 and 11 lend support to this proposition. They are as follows:

The specific policies though framed before the Millennium Development Goals, capture the spirit and intent of goal seven which seeks inter alia, integrate the principles of sustainable development into countries policies and programmes; reverse loss of environmental resources and reduce by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water.

Specific policies relating to water resources, will serve as the framework within which the water resources of Belize are to be managed. A national water resources policy sets goals and objectives for the management of water resources at the national scale and includes policies for catchments, shared or Trans-boundary water resources and inter-basin transfers all within an integrated water resources management framework. It is noted that an overarching policy was set out in the Water Industry Act. That formulation, it is submitted, captures the emergent sustainable development theme better than those highlighted in the report. It really captures the core of both the Water Quality and Water Resources policies outlined in the report. The said overarching policy in the Water Industry Act reads:

The Pro-Tem Water Commission in its deliberations regarding this overarching policy concurred that this seemed specifically designed to deal with the water industry at the time of privatization and that a rewording of it could serve well as the overarching policy. The following is hereby suggested:

The above-quoted therefore, is the recommended overarching water policy.

With regards to those specific objectives in the report, sure there are a few things we may be able to add such as, for example, to prevent and minimize the impacts of floods, drought and water related emergencies, or land use planning so as to ensure, for example, that planning approval for new developments incorporate water resources management concerns. But it is possible to incorporate these and many other issues in a National Water Resources Management Plan developed with broad based participation having the input of water users, interested parties and agencies such as but not limited to, Forest Department, Lands Department, Fisheries, Agriculture, DOE and Hydrology. This plan should be a long term one but allowing for periodic reviews.

As captured by the report, a key component in ensuring that an integrated approach is fashioned and pursued; is by means of central authority with the responsibility of managing the water resources of the country. That authority no doubt, will need to have an empowering legislation and so a draft Water Resources Act was also proposed. The report proposed the establishment of a separate and autonomous body styled, either as the National Water Commission (or National Water Board), or a Water Resources Department. But must the management of water resources be through that separate body envisioned by the report, or, can it be done by an upgrade of an existing Department such as the DOE or the Meteorological Department? Considering the financial, personnel, equipment and other factors involved in setting up a new autonomous body, it may be best at this time for the course of action to be: have one of these departments (DOE or Met) take on the role and responsibility of managing the water resources of this country either through the formation of a unit empowered to do so or by expansion of their roles and functions If that approach is adopted, then to be effective, some restructuring of the relevant department will be required. Whatever approach is taken has cost implications and it is believed that the approach of expanding the roles and functions of an existing department is the less costly one. It is observed that in the report it was envisioned that financing would have been largely through seven projects. For example, there would have been a project to train staff one to buy equipment, one to do water assessment, one to develop a water resources master plan, one to implement legislation, one to establish a national laboratory and finally one to develop a river classification and protection policy.

The approach recently recommended by the Pro-Tem Water Commission is as follows: the Hydrology Unit should be extracted from the Meteorology Department and be assigned the roles and functions relating to water resources management under the supervision of the Water Commission. That commission could still be comprised of the various persons representing various agencies as the Pro-Tem Commission is presently composed. It is proposed that the "new" Hydrology Department be supported from Government’s recurrent expenditure for the next five years. It is hoped that from revenues earned from licensing, royalties etc. that the said Department would become self sustainable within a five year period. A precedent, in the form of the Pesticides Control Board, is cited as an example. The proposed draft legislation will therefore need to be tailored to reflect this approach and clearly the Water Industry Act will have to be substantially amended.

With respect to the draft legislation, a redraft is recommended to address editorial issues along with substantive issues which were not included, such as but not limited to, the addition of more definitions, a regime for protecting catchment areas, the strengthening of provisions dealing with pollution, the inclusion of creative sentencing, to allow for compounding of offences in certain instances and to deal with the emerging practice of deep well injection whereby wastes and discharges are being emptied deep underground.