Generally, the natural habitat of low lying areas next to the sea is mangroves. Part of Morne Rouge North Estate formerly Crown Lands and Lands to the north forming part of Grand Anse Estate were Mangrove Swamp Lands; the then Government of the day in the late 50’s saw it fit to Acquire some of these lands and reclaimed same.
The only one who resisted was the late Eversley Gittens, the former owner of Silver Sands. We now know Eversley conveyed the property to CLICO who subsequently conveyed to the Egyptian Billionaire and the mangrove swamp that used to be there is now history. Likewise Point Salines/Calliste had two Salt Ponds and several acres of Mangroves up to 1979.
La Sagesse has a lake not a salt pond with residual mangroves around the lake. In the late 50’s early 60’s the mangroves were destroyed, cut down giving way to development. La Chaussee Beach /Saint David’s Harbour next door to La Sagesse containing more than 10 Acres of mangrove swamp was destroyed giving way for the Development of The Saint David’s Marina in the early ‘90’s. It was done under the Watch of the NDC Government. Sammy Lewis of Lewis Trucking did the Reclamation.Today no one can bathe on La Chaussee Beach.
It is worthy of note that in ‘62 about the time that Krashner’s Spice Island Beach Resorts were constructed, La Chausseur Beachettes (Grenada) Limited a strictly local company applied for Concessions to build a Hotel on the same La Sagesse Beach. Krashner was given longer Tax Holiday Periods than the Local Investors to which some Local Investors who owned the “Torchlight Newspaper” at the time, published a Pamphlet “Is Blaize a Liar or a Fool” listing the Concessions given to Spice Isle Beach Resorts and La Chausseur Beachettes for comparison.
Jeremy Bentham’s “The Greatest good for the greatest number” should be applied, but sometimes Development comes with a Price!
Dennis Thomas
