Keeping Tobago afloat in the dry spell

The problems which Tobago faces in this current dry and fiery period are at the top of the news daily, but instead of gazing on idly, there are many things which ordinary people can do make life easier. These are not grand fixes but we must admit at some point we are facing problems we created ourselves, over time.

Looming large is the lack of appreciation that we are about to lose the quality of life as we know it. But what is the problem exactly? It is the lack of respect with which we treat our trees, our streams and by extension our watershed. Sadly in the end it is the way we treat ourselves, since we are the top of the biological chain.

Quality of life encompasses the things we, and people before us, worked hard to achieve. Things like sewerage treatment , and health care as well agricultural systems. For example irrigation comes to mind.

If we were to miraculously change our ways, each and every one of us, then the cost of services we consume will diminish. The entire treasure chest of natural gifts we inherited will be left intact - the way it should be. We will be exemplars in keeping our part of the world pristine for our grandchildren. In fact, we pay lip service to these ideals every year in the annual Tobago Heritage festival.

Further in leaving the hills green and keeping water-filled streams we would have left to them (the next generation) a far more valuable inheritance than some concrete venues and graffiti covered stadia. We must not forget the costs of maintaining those artificial things when we build them. The term sustainability comes to mind.

Logging on private lands may be legal. What's not legal is cutting 150 trees with a forestry permit for two. On lands next to the watershed.
Forest and reefs and coastal riches, like fish stocks, will pay off a lot more to the Tobago people than basketball ever will. Let's make the island an open university for nature. Look at Grenada, a country we felt sorry for just a few years ago. A country to which we gave generously, secure in the knowledge it's a country without a 'profitable' energy sector.
No energy industry but they had SGU. St. Georges University today boasts nearly 8,000 doctors and more than 700 other SGU graduates who have taken the St. George’s University philosophy of global education while applying their education around the world.

The Grenadian people who own guesthouses, taxis, tour companies and all that sort of thing have built a support system around what is basically an educational product. And it's not all there is to it. Students by and large have families who visit. That group does not stay on campus. The simple fact is there is more airlift into Grenada than we have in Tobago today speaks volumes for our tourism savvy .

We could take the example. In Tobago we could focus on our biodiversity as the product. We say we do, but that's talk. There is no need to enumerate all the methods through which opportunities arise for making a living as well as a contribution- for that you can contact the young leaders for our environment at the local EMA office (Jones Building Wilson Road, ask for Lindford Beckles)

Or if you have lost faith in the authorities, which is an unfortunate sign of the times, you can get in contact with your local NGO. There is the Buccoo Reef Trust, who had a coast-to-watershed research project on, there's Environment Tobago, who are already always present in the school via their Clean School Project to name just one of their projects .
In closing do pay heed to an old American Indian saying :
"The frog does not drink up the pond in which he lives."