Chief Secretary: $50m extra not enough for oil-spill clean-up

CHIEF Secretary Farley Augustine says the $50m supplementary allocation the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) is expected to receive in the upcoming mid-year review will not cover all the expenses it incurred from the February 7 oil spill.

The Standing Finance Committee of the House of Representatives approved the sum on June 3.

The THA had submitted a request to government for $153 million to assist its efforts to deal with the spill, which affected some 15 kilometres of the island’s southwestern coast.

Asked about the government’s $50 million supplementation on June 5, after a function to commemorate World Environment Day at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, Augustine told reporters, “It will not be sufficient to do all the work that is required.”

He said the THA still owed practically all the contractors involved in the clean-up. The fisherfolk, he added, also have not been compensated for their losses.

“Certainly, we will make that priority number one out of the $50 million, because we want the local industry to bounce back from it. We are going to pay what we can, and hold off paying the rest until.”

Augustine said after the clean-up has been completed, there is a need for studies to be done, as well as rehabilitation work in some areas.

“The removal of sand along with the toxic material was quite a lot, so we have to look at those areas and see whether there is a requirement for re-sanding beaches, beach reconstruction.

“We have to do the studies to look at the impact on the coral reef…Just the studies and the potential rehabilitation alone will be astronomical.

"But we are going to take it one day at a time. We will work with what we have and stretch it as far as possible.

"But I am certain that a lot more will be required, especially for the post clean-up efforts.”