Minister of Finance Hon. Camillo Gonsalves, while speaking on radio this week provided an update on the implementation of lifeguards on the beaches of St. Vincent.
“We have created the posts for the lifeguards. Lifeguards are to be at Brighton and Villa beaches to begin with, with the logic being that during the tourism season those are two of the more heavily—Well, Brighton is dangerous because of the tides and Villa is more frequented.”
Minister Gonsalves addressed the delayed rollout of lifeguards at the nation’s beaches, attributing the delay to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We have delayed slightly because of COVID. So we’ve created the posts, we have had our craftspeople construct the lifeguard towers that they will occupy, but we haven’t hired yet because really and truly we didn’t have a tourism season this year but we hope that as we approach the tourism season next year, we’ll have everybody in place and everybody trained. So everything is in place but we haven’t pulled the trigger because they would have been guarding empty beaches.”
The appointment of lifeguards at certain beaches in the country was first addressed in 2020’s budget. The plan is to have lifeguards stationed at Rawacou, Brighton Salt Pond and Villa Beaches- three locales that are either heavily populated or have a history of dangerous swimming conditions.
