2023-05-10 18:15:04
In Capesterre-de-Marie-Galante, the work of Sisyphus resumed. After a respite of a few weeks, sargassum is back on the beaches of this locality of 3,000 inhabitants. “It started again during the Easter weekend”, grumbles the mayor, Jean-Claude Maës. His town is on the front line of seasonal arrivals of brown algae: located on the eastern coast of the island of Marie-Galante, exposed to the trade winds and currents from the Atlantic Ocean, it alone undergoes 40% strandings observed throughout the department.
A real curse for this tourist town: its heavenly beaches are regularly disfigured. “Sargassum has dealt a blow to our attractiveness”laments Mr. Maës, who claims to have called on three companies to carry out the daily collection, with a backhoe loader, of the smelly algae that wash up on the coast. “Two trucks each make eight trips a day”, affirms the Capesterrian aedile. The bill is important for the city: “300,000 euros for April and May”, according to the mayor. In 2018, the worst year, the bill amounted to 800,000 euros, or a fifth of the municipality’s operating budget. “Money thrown out the window”sighs the chosen one.
Disproportionately affected by this phenomenon, which since 2011 has affected the entire Caribbean region, from the Caribbean arc to Florida and the Mexican coasts, the Marie-Galantaise commune is finally regaining hope: by July, two dams floating nearly 800 meters should be installed facing the shore. Entirely funded by the state, the structures are supposed to deflect algae towards a collection mat or out to sea, depending on the currents.
These devices are expected to multiply in the rest of Guadeloupe, where 13 communes of the department out of 32 are affected by invasions of brown algae. On May 4, a dam was deployed in Terre-de-Haut, in the Saintes archipelago, by the direction of the sea, one of the state services in the department. “We can finance dams everywhere”assures Bruno André, the sub-prefect of Pointe-à-Pitre, responsible for coordinating the action of the State in the fight against Sargassum in Guadeloupe.
Deviant barrages and “amphibious devices”
Since the launch of the government’s second Sargassum plan in May 2022, there is no shortage of government funding. The allocation amounts to 36 million euros for the communities of Guadeloupe, Martinique and Saint-Martin, for the period between 2022 and 2025. “The state helps massively”, emphasizes Mr. André. It provides the equipment needed to collect stranded sargassum, grants “cash advances” for the municipalities, responsible for the collection of seaweed washed up on the coast but financially drained… For the past year, “we don’t have a money problem”affirms the sub-prefect, in a willingly reassuring tone.
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