Almond Beach Club sewage well overflowing for 7 years
Video and commentary by Professor Robin Mahon
Director, Centre for Resource Management and Environmental Studies (CERMES), University of the West Indies, Cave Hill, Barbados (bio here)
“Here comes a man on his bicycle, completely unaware that he is riding through sewage waste on his way home…”
“All the vehicles spraying it up, becoming an aerosol probably containing all sorts of health risks… busloads of people being exposed to this filthy water”
“Ironically, that runs directly into the sea at Almond Beach Club beach, so that the people who are staying there are swimming in their own waste water…”
“They say it is rain water, but as you see it is not. It is coming directly from their sewage well. They have been spoken to on a number of occasions by the Public Health Inspector who has told them that this has to stop, this is a public health threat. They are also polluting the sea and endangering people swimming in the sea…”
“Health threat to the public of Barbados and a disgrace.”
“This sewage treatment plant water… For the last seven or eight years we have been trying to deal with this where they allow this water to overflow as you see it now… this water going along the road until it reaches in front of Almond Beach Village itself… and into the sea at Almond Beach…”
Comment by BFP’s Shona
Who really owns Almond Resorts? Do any politicians have shares in Almond Resorts?
Where have the Ministry of the Environment and Environment Ministers been for seven years that this has been happening? The answer is “Protecting the Barbados Brand by being silent and keeping they mouths shut tight.”
A few weeks ago, Mullins Bay blog asked where is the $75 Million Barbados borrowed from the IDB for the West Coast sewage project? Well, where is the money?
Because this is what we have been left with for all those millions in debt.
Note: The quotes were quickly taken from the YouTube video and may be off by a word or two. I have to go to work, so if someone wants to review and correct them I’d love ya! Please leave the reviewed quotes or any new ones from the video in the comments section and I’ll post them later. Thank you, got to go.
Barbados Free Press 
McGill’s research headquarters in the tropics http://www.mcgill.ca/bellairs/ is right on top of this
Careful or you might lose your sunspot by actually doing some real research and warning Barbadians of what is happening.
Canada’s tax dollars at work!
I passed this road on Thursday 20 Januaty 2011 in the evening and the volume of water flowwing down into the road was such that I said maybe there was heavy rainfall inland but the sewage scent told me otherwise.I could not believe this was happening.Where is the Environmental Protection Department ? Do they not conduct water quality checks along this coast?This is a National disgrace.Vehicle after vehicle simple continued to drive through it spraying water indiscriminately.
Almond Beach Club & Spa is owned my Almond Resorts Inc – http://www.almondresorts.com – which is 47% owned by BARBADOS Shipping & Trading Co. Ltd. – http://www.bsandtco.com/associatedcompanies.cfm – who is in turned mostly owned by Trinidad’s Neal & Massy Group … there for any to see.
The Public Health officials have no bite whatsoever … I got a next-door neighbour that reported a Health Inspector to the Ombudsman for making an issue of a similar thing – sewage well over-flowing and smelling up the neighbourhood, moisture seeping through the soil and had the grass growing miles high at the height of the annual drought when everything thing else was brown, etc. – and he got transferred to another district. That was a few years ago and we still have to put up with the issue, every so often or particularly when it rains heavily.
So what do you expect with a big organisation like Almond, BS&T, etc.
I stopped going to the beach and bathing in the sea more than 25 years ago.
We stayed at Almond Beach last year and it was okay but not great. The place is shopworn compared with the travel brochures and videos on their website. Food was only palatable and never crisp, always like last night’s greens presented for lunch the following day, still edible but definitely NOT how it’s supposed to be at a resort and definitely NOT for that price. I saw the “creek” running down the side of the hotel with foul greenish “water” and we never went into the ocean after that. It didn’t matter because we’re not beach people and we were there to see the island but YUK! I am surprised that the hotel has been allowed to get away with this for so long by the health authorities and environment people.
I will never return to Almond and Barbados wasn’t the friendliest place I’ve visited anyway. “Stuck up” is how I describe most of the Barbados people we met, it was so obvious that they didn’t want to be bothered with us. I think that the island has grown tired of tourists and everybody we met reflects that. We were not made to feel welcome at the hotel or anywhere and it started at the airport. It might be different in a more expensive hotel but I’m talking about how the country feels to a visitor at least this visitor.
I must be in the comedy section of this rag. First, I read an article referring to cost-conscious people as bottom feeders and not the type of vacationers welcomed in Barbados. Next, an article about vacationers that aren’t “bottom-feeders” overpaying for the opportunity to swim and drive through their own waste (there’s a better, 4-letter word for it, but I’ll keep it “clean”). I’ll just keep vacationing with friendly people, where it costs less and is less toxic. If I feel I want the Barbados experience, I can always dunk my head in the toilet before flushing.
HA HA HAAAAA! “Rainwater runoff!” I believe that’s the same thing they were saying was in that unearthed septic tank on the beach behind Kings Beach Hotel – https://barbadosfreepress.wordpress.com/2009/09/21/theres-nothing-like-an-exposed-septic-tank-on-the-beach-to-impress-the-tourists/
hi
just wondered as anybody noticed in title it says almond beach village when in fact it should say almond beach club
Hi Sandra
Yes, your title would have been better. Thanks. Unfortunately we can’t change it now because that disturbs the links from folks and websites who have linked to our story and that is about 15 so far.
Hey… want to join the staff and be in charge of titles? Sometimes we need a sober second opinion. (Okay, lots of times!) 🙂
absolutely disgusting. I received a call from a visitor in The U. K. who picked this up on the Barbados free press, want to know what is being done about it, because they will be here in a month’s time. Hoping they will not have to cancel their holiday. Can you imagine if this gets in the press there and the fall out from this? It even went so far as to say this is how the cholera epidemic started in Haiti.
i smelled that!!! disgusting.
Because of the close proximity this should be a huge concern for anyone swimming at Sandy Lane or anywhere in Holetown.
I have taken down the utube video. I believe that it has served its purpose. I have been contacted by senior Almond Beach officials and am convinced that they are now taking this very seriously. I am seeing work being done on site. I feel confident that visitors will not experience this again. If it happens again (and I pass there every day) I will video it again and post the new video, along with the one just taken down and the one that I took the week before that. The aim, however, is not just to stop the problem at that site, but to get the Government of Barbados to proceed with implementing the Pollution Control Act that was passed several years ago and is still not being used.
Congrats Robin, on both raising and lowering the issue.
The power of the internet increases exponentially, and you have used it wisely and effectively.
Great work Robin of bringing forth to the public the truth of what really goes on…
Excellent work Robin, but are we being deceived? What exactly is being done other than a promise? When will the work start? What are the plans and when will they be approved by the Environment Ministry? Is there a plan to rush the approval through and what happens with the pollution until that time? Why did the government officials not act for seven years? Who stood in the way? What are the names of the government officials aside from the Environment Ministers who should have acted and did not?
Finally: Should we believe Almond Resorts this time when the problem has been going on for seven years?
Although you’ve done good work, like other citizens who have written in their own names or posted videos, you soon had a little visit and you soon took down your work. We all understand that because we live here too and that’s why we continue to write anonymously.
Marcus
You will have to watch Almond on this, don’t trust them
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Video is gone
Travelling from the UK to stay at the Almond Beach Village on 6th February. I am very concerned about this blog ….. is it safe for my wife and I to come across to Barbados and to actually use the facilities of the Village? Should I be getting onto my travel agent to move our accommodation to somewhere a bit more safe, and what would you recommend. We don’t have loads of money and this was a ‘once in a life time trip’ which we know we will be unable to afford again.
Ken,
To answer your query, why don’t you run a check on a nice outfit called “Peach & Quiet” on our South coast? Maybe they could be of some help.
I haven’t actually stayed there but have heard a lot of good press about them.
This needs to be made clear that this IS ALMOND BEACH CLUB not Almond Beach Village
Still yukky “water” on the roadway in front of the place last week. YUK!
Did you really expect something to be done?
Visiting Almond Beach in April for well earned holiday, itended writing an article for Sunday supplement, holiday section. Has problem with sewage been resolved yet If not I will write review from another resort.
Hello Malagant,
We haven’t heard one way or the other, but the video sure came down quickly, didn’t it?
Drop us a line if you’re staying there, thanks.
Robert
We visited this place for one day only in February 2011 and my wife and I both commented on the smell in the vicinity of the over-flow. Additionally we found the beach was virtually non-existant due to hurricane damage.
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