From the municipality of Montecristi it is indicated that they carry out controls and even checkpoints were built to verify sand extractions from San José beach
Montecristi, MANABÍ
“Thousands of tons of beach sand are extracted per day on San José beach, 16 kilometers from Puerto Cayo, Manabí, since I arrived nine years ago I have seen it happening, environmental damage, authorities?”
That text was located with a video on the social network Twitter by the renowned international chef Rodrigo Pacheco, who resides in the south of Manabí, and where he showed his complaint about the extraction of sand from that beach that belongs to the Montecristi canton, which is to the passage of the Spondylus route.
The criticisms were not only issued by this chef, who was appointed as a goodwill ambassador for the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations), in Latin America, but also from other environmentalists and defenders of flora and fauna.
After Pacheco’s trill on Twitter, several people called on the Ministry of the Environment and other entities of Manabí to control what has been a practice of extraction of sea sand for many years.
For example, Pedro Pablo Benites indicated that in addition to the environmental damage caused, it is also questionable whether that sand is used in construction, especially with what happened in Manabí with the April 2016 earthquake, as experts have urged that in buildings sea sand is not used.
Sandra Loaiza, in her Facebook account, also questioned this practice last year and even more so what she considered is the little action to reduce these impacts on the environment.
“At present, what is seen today is the number of dump trucks taking sand and I am not saying stealing because the community members charge 3 dollars per dump, and I wonder, dump trucks from Montecristi, Manta, the Prefecture, God, how is it possible ”, Loaiza published on his Facebook account on July 4, 2021.
San José beach and mangrove swamp in Montecristi
In the same Pacheco account on Twitter, the Ministry of the Environment, Water and Ecological Transition (MAATE) answers the chef and indicates that together with personnel from the area of this ministry in Manabí they will follow up on the case according to their competences.
After several hours, in the same social network the MAATE points out that the extraction of aggregates and stone is carried out by the municipal governments, and in this case the investigation belongs to the Montecristi council.
Jonathan Mero, director of the Department of Environmental Management of the municipality of Montecristi, indicated that in the current administration of this Manabi council, led by Washington Arteaga, checkpoints were built to control the entry of heavy vehicles, and that these buildings were destroyed by the The same people who come to extract sand from that beach, the only one that this canton has.
He even pointed out that months ago, carrying out a control, they proceeded to retain a dump truck, demanding the owner, after an administrative process, endorsed by what the Organic Environmental Code indicates, to pay a fine. But then the vehicle that tried to extract sand was released.
The municipal official said that previously they gave artisanal mining permits, as is done in other Manabí resorts, but now granting permits to effectively control said extraction is impossible because currently the mining cadastre is still closed, but also another impediment they have. it is the remoteness of the beach in relation to the urban area of Montecristi.
“But they will also understand that it is a beach that is almost an hour from the city, and the perennial control also leads us to have organized logistics,” said Mero about this spa, which also has a mangrove area. (I)
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