Tobago House of Assembly leader wants Regional summit on sargassum

SCARBOROUGH, Tobago, Aug 4, CMC – Faced with a number of hotel cancellations, the Chief Secretary of the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) Orville London is calling for an emergency meeting of Caribbean leaders to discuss the sargassum seaweed invasion across the region.

“We are going to approach the national government recommending to the government that they should in fact ask for an emergency meeting of the heads of government to treat with this particular situation,” London said.

The THA said it has established a working committee to address the issue and that three million dollars (One TT dollar =US$0.16 cents) has been set aside to initially treat with the issue.

Chairman of the Hotel and Tourism Association here, Christopher James, said islands such as Antigua, Saint Lucia, Barbados and Grenada are already affected by the sargassum seaweed, and it is hoped an effective regional approach can be found with the intervention of the Barbados-based Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO).

Tobago relies significantly on the tourism sector and the sargassum has led to a number of cancellations of hotel bookings.

“The Tobago House of Assembly is treating this as an emergency, as a natural disaster and therefore the same kind of approach that we would use in treating with a disaster that is the approach that we would be using going forward,” said the Director of the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment, Linford Beckles.

“The Tobago House of Assembly is making every effort to make the kind of immediate intervention that would bring some relief and over the coming days the intervention would be intensified.

“We note the health and safety concerns faced in the communities and we ask for your patience, we ask for your cooperation in this process.”