Upgraded land zoning policy coming soon Loop Barbados

Black Immigrant Daily News

By the end of the year, there will be an upgraded water protection and land use zoning policy.

While speaking at the Frederick Smith Secondary School for St James Speaks town hall meeting on Wednesday, September 28, Deputy Prime Minister Santia Bradshaw stated the revised zoning legislation will be coming soon.

“We have been working on the Water Reuse Legislation, both Minister Symmonds and myself through the BNSI [Barbados National Standards Institution] and the Ministry, particularly the Barbados Water Authority on the zoning legislation,” she shared.

“I am hoping for before the end of the year,”continued the Deputy Prime Minister on the revised zoning legislation which marks the replacement of Zones One to Five with zones A to E.

The Green Paper on the 2020 Water Protection and Land Use Zoning Policy proposed the existing zones be replaced with Zone A being a strict exclusion zone, smaller in area than the existing Zone 1, with no new developments and restricted agriculture. Zone B, a pathogen management zone with stricter rules for sewage treatment and disposal; Zone C a chemicals management zone; Zone D is a recharged controlling zone, which encompasses additional limestone areas with continued standards for wastewater treatment; and Zone E a non-recharged contributing area, a non-recharge contributing area that primarily consists of areas that do not contribute to the recharge of aquifers [ Scotland District].

When questioned about when the new zones will take effect, Bradshaw stressed that Government was in the process of fine-tuning the legislation.

“We have had to look not only at introduction of the legislation but also how are we going to practically get people to look at the issues of plumbing codes when the legislation actually comes into effect….We wanted to make sure that we also have the water protection zones also sorted and so the teams have been examining that and we have had to go back and add a few zones,” she revealed.

“I believe in the next few weeks we will be able to complete that, with the view to be able to bring that to Parliament, but there is a lot of other work that has to go on behind the scenes to make sure when we bring the legislation, we can bring relief to the number of persons who have been affected in the Zone One areas,” the Deputy Prime Minister continued.

She emphasized that the Government sought to provide clear demarcation of the zones so residents will be able to identify those that can be used for housing.

“I hear the cry for being able to have one house on the land but I think you can appreciate that we are trying to protect the groundwater supply and so we have been very careful to identify what we can do in particular areas so as to stop the contaminants from being able to go into the groundwater,” Bradshaw insisted.

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