After a Fire, Three Hospitals are being Built on the Island

Roatan has found itself in a health crisis. On April 19, around 9pm, Roatan Public Hospital in Coxen Hole burned down in a spectacular fire. The fire destroyed 95% of the 33 year old building except for a portion of the office annex.
No one was killed or gravely injured in the fire and 60 interned patients were transferred to two nearby private island hospitals. Wood Medical Center in Coxen Hole received most of the patients and the private Hospital Centro Medico Sampedrano (CEMESA) received another dozen. “All the emergencies were attended until May 10 [for] free,” said Dr. Jackie Wood, owner of the Wood Medical Center who also helped to build the original public hospital in 1991. “My heart was broken and I cried all night. You do not imagine what I feel to see all that work [turn to] ashes.”
The firemen concluded that faulty electric wiring was the reason for the fire. “A couple years back we had a fire in a maternity room for the same reason,” said Dr. Wood.
The spring of 2024 has been full of fires breaking out all over Roatan. There has been very little rain since the rainy season ended on the island in March. Dry as bone trees and cohunes became prone to catching fire and strong winds made things especially difficult to handle.

While the fire was a disaster, it also became an opportunity to quickly and efficiently upgrade the islands hospital facilities. While the public hospital building was gone there were plenty of doctors, underutilized private clinics, a network of community clinics, a semi finished hospital in Dixon Cove, and there was an 18,000 square foot Adventist center.

Instead of quickly finishing the new public hospital in Dixon Cove, the central government decided to build a “temporary” hospital in Coxen Hole. Instead of using facilities that are available, the government set up tents in hot weather at Julio Galindo stadium in Coxen Hole.

“My heart was broken and I cried all night.”

Another site in Loma Linda area of Coxen Hole was chosen by the central government as a site for an emergency, provisional 40 bed hospital and is estimated to cost 100-150 Million Lps. It has been planned to be finished in 90 days, but due to a complicated, heavily sloped site, that is unlikely to happen.

The Loma Linda hospital site is adorned with a huge poster “Xiomara Sí Cumple,” – “Xiomara does deliver.” In fact after the fire and presidential visit the island was dotted with “Xiomara Sí Cumple” signs. There is one such poster at the Roatan international airport, one in Dixon Cove, one in Loma Linda and one at Coxen Hole stadium. A kilometer away, while central government authorities were erecting those signs, Roatan Municipality completely demolished the burned out hospital and practically flattened the old hospital site.

All in all, the facility that was closest to being able to function as a temporary hospital was the Adventist center in French Harbour. Little Friends Foundation along with Roatan Municipality operated the COVID center at the Adventist center back in 2020. While the second story of the large building was used for consultations and beds, the first story is being readied to function as an emergency center for the emergency temporary hospital before the provisional hospital is finished and before the new hospital in Dixon Cove is completed.

Six weeks after the fire things are far for clear for many islanders in need of medical attention and confusion still persisted. “The ambulances take you from the street and don’t even know where to take you,” said Steven Guillen, president of Little Friends Foundation, a NGO that was in charge of building the Dixon Cove hospital facility. “If you are dying, you have to go to CEMESA.”

In May a woman in labor was asked for money from treatment at Woods Medical Center, she didn’t have the funds, so she was transferred to CEMESA designated as an emergency care center. The transport she was using broke down and she was transferred to another vehicle. By the time she arrived at CEMESA it was too late and she died.

That could have been avoided. The Adventist center was ready to operate two weeks after the hospital fire. The current construction work on the hospital is being paid by the Roatan Municipality and donations. There is a blood testing center for TB and HIV being built as well.

For the time being, nurses and doctors are allocated to several centers around the island. While Roatan Municipality is financially and technically capable of building, even equipping a public hospital, it does not feel capable of running the hospital with accredited and paid staff – that is a step too far.

The history of the 20,000 square foot Roatan Public hospital goes back to 1991. According to Dr. Jackie Wood, it cost the government $7 million to build. It could have been much more, but many good willed people helped it along. “Equipment was donated from the United Kingdom government (…) donations from Roatan people and private companies from Roatan and La Ceiba and the central government,” said Dr. Wood.

The island outgrew the medical facility within a couple decades, but the road to the new public hospital has had been fret with hopes, mistakes, delays, and wishful thinking.

In 2006, after 15 years of the Roatan Hospital serving the public, then Mayor Dale Jackson decided that it was time to build a new hospital. Land in Dixon Cove was purchased as “an emergency purchase.” Eighteen years later that emergency still hasn’t been resolved.

The one million dollar land cost paid was an extremely high cost for the municipality. It took the next administration of Mayor Julio Galindo to pay off the purchase completely. There was nothing done during the Mayor Dorn Ebanks tenure.

While the fire was a disaster, it also became an opportunity.

When Jerry Hynds became mayor in 2018, he was able to secure a $2 million donation from Kelcy Warren, US billionaire and owner of RECO, for the construction of the hospital in Dixon Cove. “When the funds ran out the Municipality started using some of their own funds to complete the gray work. “The original discussions were that the Municipality would do the gray work and they would finish the hospital,” says Guillen. Windows, doors, some of the sewage and water infrastructure was also finished. Roatan municipality spent $500,000 and within a couple of years there was a large, 75,000 square foot two story building sitting on a hill in Dixon Cove.

In Honduras many things are accomplished when local and central government belong to the same political party, that was not the case with National Party in Tegus and Liberal party on Roatan. “ [Mayor] Jerry [Hynds] said: ‘If they [central government] are not going to join, we are going to finish it,” said Guillen. “He had it in his mind that he was going to finish it one way or another.”

In fact the construction of the new public hospital was a joint effort and not only Kelcy Warren’s donation and municipal tax dollars funded it. “May people donated freight, equipment time and helped to reduce costs,” said Guillen. While these donations were not enumerated by Little Friends Foundation, they likely run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.

In 2022 the 75,000 square foot Dixon Cove hospital building has been finished in raw state with windows and doors placed. The building sits on 8.3 acres site and there is a basement. Electric, sewer and gas lines could be installed as per requirement.

“There were verbal agreements, but never any written agreements with any administration,” said Guillen. Several visits by central government contracted engineers and architects took place. Recommendations were made, fulfilled, but nothing was put on paper and signed. “Every time the central government sent a crew of engineers they came up with a list of changes. Moving and creating walls, doors,” said Guillen.

The reality was that Roatan’s politicians were working with best intentions in a constantly evolving political climate back in Tegucigalpa. “The idea was to pass the facility into the hands of the Honduran health ministry in a raw state, and for them to finish it up to their standards,” said Guillen. According to Guillen the land title has been transferred to the national government years ago.

After Ximara Castro’s Libre Party won the national elections in November 2021 the relationship between Roatan Municipality and José Manuel Matheu, Honduran Health Minister under President Xiomara Castro, was going well. “We had a very good relationship with him. He brought in IDB [International Development Bank],” said Guillen. That all ended when in December 2023 Matheu was replaced with Carlos Aguilar. Since nothing was written down and agreed, Municipality was left holding the bag.

After the public hospital burned down a political turf war for credit as far as who is building what with whom’s money on Roatan intensified. It seems that Honduran president’s Libre Party was not willing to give credit to local authorities who are affiliated with the Liberal Party.

Then there was the bigger issue. If the new Roatan hospital was to be finishing with locally done contractors and donated equipment there would no way for big players to make money and make themselves seem indispensable. If local authorities would solve their own infrastructure and health problems, like Roatan has attempted, there would be no need for dependency on international loan institutions. That would mean 2000 bankers and bureaucrats in IDB Washington DC headquarters would lose their salaries, and that cannot be.

According to Honduran authorities $47 million dollars is now needed to finish the new hospital and equip it. The around $2.5 million spent on the building by Warren and Municipality is a rounding error of the estimated remaining costs. Now plenty of companies will have an opportunity to skim off the very high top and make money in the bonanza.

Roatan Municipality is financially and technically capable of building, even equipping a public hospital.

Local authorities say, that the building could be finished and equipped and ready to open for a fraction of that sum. “We could get all the equipment in very good condition donated,” said Guillen.

That is unlikely to happen. Since 2010 IDB has allocated 35% of its annual loan approval to “small and vulnerable” members and Honduras is qualified as one of them. IDB constantly needs new projects to allocate millions, and tens of millions of loans. Finding donors for a new public hospital is good business for IDB and good for its bottom line.

For average islanders worried about their health, the money, the funding and technical matters are too complicated to contemplate. Yet, the fact is there is money to be made loaning out money. There is plenty of money to be made in the construction of a new hospital and plenty of entities are eyeing the Roatan project.

It is the central government that decides what the municipalities need, often with a faulty understanding of population dynamics and local idiosyncrasies. This is how Roatan Island ended up with a Coxen Hole desalination plant and José Santos Guardiola with a garbage dump in Punta Blanca that never opened. These white elephants were paid from loans and grants by IDF and Inter American Development Bank. These projects are expensive and justify the existence of large international lending institutions.

The sad part is not only about the debt that is unnecessarily created, it is also that Honduras does need government investment in other parts of the country and is not getting it. One such example is the rebuilding of Canal Maya (In the Sula Valley, Mainland Honduras) that was destroyed in the 2020 Hurricane season, yet there are no funds and no one to rebuild it.

Other than IDB, another winner in this situation and all this chaos could be CEMESA. They have secured an agreement with government for treatment of patients. What is not known is how much CEMESA charges the government for these services. CEMESA prices are high, an appendix surgery can cost Lps.50,000 or more.

After the fire, a fund was set up out of which CEMESA is paid by Ministry of Health and Ministry of Finances. “CEMESA don’t have 11 million Lps. This in an insurance fund,” said Doctor Lastenia Cruz, Roatan Hospital Director, on May 29. “We are in front of CEMESA, we are meeting them constantly.”

There is a great contrast with how government and private business deal with a fire, and efficient restructuring. For example Waldina’s Tapestry shop, a private business that burned to the ground in French Harbour in February 29, 2024. With very few resources, but with much motivation, the owner was able to rebuild and reopen her upholstery and sail repair business within weeks of the fire. A great contrast to the paralysis and confusion of the central government after the Roatan hospital fire.

At the end of June there was no agreement what to call the French Harbour Adventist hospital facility. Some islanders still call it the Adventist Center, some call it Adventist Hospital, and some still call it the COVID Center.

Still the Adventist Center has been receiving plenty of non emergency patients. On May 27, Aldin Ebanks, a patient from Coxen Hole, went to Wood Clinic in Coxen Hole where he was told to go CEMESA. At CEMESA he was told to go to the Adventist center. All this took time, money, and transport expense. He was diagnosed with water in his lungs, and treated at the Adventist Center.

Roatan’s politicians were working with best intentions in a constantly evolving political climate.

The Adventist center is now open 24 hours a day and the number of specialists working at the Adventist center has been gradually increasing. “The Adventist center opening will cover all the services required by the population,” said Guillen. “They have greater capacity than the original public hospital.”

There is a plan to use both the downstairs and upstairs of the Adventist Center. The Municipal is making plans to turn the two story building into a fully functional hospital. The facility is actually larger than the original public hospital in Coxen Hole.“We are trying to centralize everything here,” said Guillen.

While the Adventist organization is letting the Honduran ministry of health use the facility without a written contract. Again, this could lead to misunderstandings and conflicts. Who pays for electricity costs, for maintenance costs, or for damages is not 100% clear. “They [central government] should work with the Municipality to set up this [Adventist Center],” said Guillen. “We don’t know how long they will be on temporary basis.”

Some consultation services were decentralized from the public hospital to community clinics outside of big towns. The recently opened clinic in Flowers Bay is picking up plenty of work.

The island’s medical situation will clear itself out in a matter of a year, or two. There is one question that remains and that is whether perhaps the central government and some international organizations, despite what they say and want you to believe, are not there to help you in the most sensible and efficient way, but to exploit your problems to the advantage on interest groups.

Many of us agree to pretend that police, health, education and emigration services are here to help. We are afraid to admit how inefficient, malevolent and expensive these government entities are. The cost of realizing that would be we would have to do something about it. It is easier just to go on pretending.

$47 million dollars is now needed to finish the new hospital.

New Municipal Buildings Open All Over the Bay Islands

With local economies booming the Bay Islands Municipalities have been upgrading their infrastructure, especially their municipal buildings. With increased revenues in local and land taxes, business and building permits, the Municipal governments have money to spend. The 2019-2022 was a period of fixing up the municipal buildings and constructing new ones in the three western municipalities of the Bay Islands.

ROATAN MUNICIPAL PALACE

The ground breaking on the Municipal building took place in December 2019; the construction began in February 2020 and was concluded in October 2020. Basically, the Roatan Municipality was built during the central government imposed COVID lockdown of the island in 2020.

When private businesses were told to lock down because of “safety” measures against COVID the Municipality construction project was providing valuable income to island families struggling to survive economically. According to Ing. Castillo the 50 to 100 municipal construction workers working on the site supported 400 families. “We used our own people for construction and only subcontracted a few times,” says Ing. Castillo.

The new Municipal building is more than 10 times larger than the 5,200 Sf old one in Coxen Hole. The new building is two stories tall and has 75,000 sf. The structure has 25 offices, a space for a bank and a large meeting room.

The symmetrical building named “the Municipal Palace” is visible from the main road across a huge, 74 car parking lot. While the Muni building was badly needed and is built solid, its simplistic esthetic has brought some criticism. With an immense parking lot and three columns on its portico the municipal headquarters is perhaps more reminiscent of a Walmart than a municipal headquarters.

The municipal’s construction was supervised by CINSA, a Tegucigalpa based quality control company. The building was budgeted at Lps. 48 million or $2 million, but cost Lps. 67 million or $2.7 million in the end.

As the new Roatan Municipal building has opened for business, the old Municipal Building in Coxen Hole is being retrofitted to accommodate INFOP – National Institute of Professional Education [Instituto Nacional de Formación Profesional], a government educational school. “The Mayor’s [Jerry Hynds] idea was to move all the services from Coxen Hole and make it [the town] a tourist site,” said Ing. Castillo.

There is still more construction on the Municipal site in Dixon Cove. In June 2022 ground was broken on a 3,500 Sf annex building and additional parking area just south of the municipal building. The building will house offices that are still in downtown Coxen Hole – Municipal Police, Justice office. According to Ing. Castillo the idea is for the Municipal Offices to completely vacate Coxen Hole.

New Municipal building is more than 10 times larger than the 5,200 Sf old one.

The municipal building is part of the bigger upgrade of Roatan municipal infrastructure. The 10.4 kilometer main national road construction form First Bight to Coxen Hole was done also exclusively with local taxes. Only 500 meters was paved with funds of the Central Government. A situation where a national road is constructed, or constructed with Municipal funds is unprecedented in Honduras.

The new concrete Roatan road is expected to last for the next 25-30 years. Ing. Castillo feels that Honduran Central government hires companies that are not based in the Bay Islands and don’t care about the quality of work they leave behind. “This is why we tend to do the work ourselves,” said Ing. Castillo.

Another construction is about to begin on the two-acre Municipal Equipment warehouse and operations and maintenance center in Dixon Cove near the new Public Hospital site.

UTILA MUNICIPAL

On the west of the Bay Islands department 8,000 Utila residents received a 9,000 sf municipal building. The construction on the project began in 2019 under Mayor Troy Bodden. The Utila Municipal building is now a three story tall solid, concrete structure. The entire project cost the Utila taxpayers $450,000 (11 million Lps.) or $45 per Utilian.

The Municipal employees moved to this new location from a two story wooden building built in 1990s when Fulton Jackson was Utila’s Mayor. The old 1,600 sf building was located right next to the municipal dock and was too small to accommodate the growing Municipal staff. The old building will now accommodate offices of the judge, registry office and immigration.

On its front elevation the new municipal building has an array of solar panels. According to Ing. Kerry Samson, chief of the Utila Municipality’s infrastructure department, the solar panels have reduced its energy consumption costs by almost 80%. A significant reduction from Lps. 40,000- 50,000 a month to Lps. 10,000. “The municipal operates in the daytime, so we don’t need a battery bank,” said Ing. Samson, who has been working in his position for six years, first under National Party Mayor Troy Bodden and since January 2022, under Liberal Mayor Alexander Ebanks.

A central staircase of the building leads to the second story offices and third story space that can be used for exhibitions. The handsome white building was designed by Ing. Vicente Maradiaga.

The Utila Municipal Hall was built to withstand earthquakes and the building has a 12,000-gallon cistern. The building’s roof catches rainwater and when it’s cistern is full it supplies the Municipal water system consisting of four municipal wells and two wells leased by the municipality. The municipal pumps run 24 hours a day pumping 40 gallons a minute. The daily output of 230,000 gallons or 29 gallons per Utilian.

There are several other needed infrastructure projects that are taking place on Utila. The municipal garbage dump is an infrastructure project of concern. The municipal has plans to relocate the garbage dump to a site on Jericho hill in 2023. “When our dump is on fire it affects everyone,” said Ing. Samson. In 2022 Utila Municipality has begun undertaking a repaving of 507 meters of Mamey Road with hydraulic concrete.

Roatan’s Aquifer and Reef are at Risk from the Mismanaged Garbage Dump

The most impressive recycling operation on Roatan has not been set up by the local or central government, or by the nonprofit organization. The island’s biggest recycling operation is done seven days a week, 365 days a year, by around 120 people who work on and often live on the Roatan garbage dump. They separate and salvage metals, plastics and glass; they retrieve usable lumber, find old refrigerators and pass them on to recycling centers in Coxen Hole.

Their dignified, important work goes unnoticed and thankless. They also find themselves earning a living in the most toxic and dangerous environment on Roatan - the “temporary” Roatan Municipal garbage dump.

Maribel has sad eyes of a woman twice her age and her hands are wrinkled and covered with scars. She works without gloves so pieces of glass and metal often cut the skin of her small hands. It is late Sunday afternoon. She places bottles and containers of value into a four foot long transparent plastic bag.

The bag contains about thirty pieces of dirty, used, discardable containers most people see no value in. There are aluminum cans worth 80 Honduran centavos each, there are heavy plastic containers worth two Lempiras each and one glass coca cola bottle worth another two Lempiras.

If Maribel works hard and is lucky, she is able to buy milk for her two-year-old baby that lives with her and her parents, a hundred yards east of the garbage dump. If it is a bad day she might not even earn one hundred Lempiras.

There is an unwritten agreement that each recycler not take away, from a pile already collected. The Municipal dump is dotted with piles of old metal roofs, stacks of wooden pallets, bags of aluminum cans and heaps of rusting refrigerators and dishwashers. Nobody touches these piles but its rightful recycler and now owner. Honor system and gentlemen rules are a big part of recycling life in Mud Hole, Roatan.

Roatan Municipality employs three security guards at the garbage dump. Abiel Navarro has been a security man at the dump for seven years and makes sure nothing happens to the one key piece of equipment that moves trash and flattens the heap of trash. Navarro lives in a makeshift structure on the garbage dump itself. There are a dozen improvised mini houses on the site of the dump where people eat and sleep.

Despite the work of many devoted municipal employees the simple truth is that the local government is not competent enough to manage basic infrastructure projects. Roatan municipal government broke the desalination plant in Coxen Hole, but its biggest fiasco is the garbage dump that it has been mismanaging for two decades.

Its limits fall in the maintenance of fairly complex entities such as desalination plants, garbage dump or black water projects. Since 2013 the Municipality has run the desalination plant that has been sitting vacant ever since, perpetually waiting for some filters replacements.

It all started with a million dollars and high expectations. Back in 2000, the idea was to have one, centrally located garbage dump for the entire island. Construction and operating costs would be less; the two municipal governments could not come to an agreement where to locate such site.

The original Municipal dump had a lifespan of 10 years, but lasted 17 years without much maintenance, proper compacting and lack of proper layering of refuse. The original site of the 100 by 200 meter garbage dump in Mud Hole was opened in 2002. PMAIB (Proyecto Manejo Ambiental De Las Islas De La Bahía – Environmental Management Project of The Bay Islands) spent $850,000 to set up the site and another $600,000 to purchase garbage collection and management equipment: two garbage trucks, a compactor and a pusher.

Municipal dump is dotted with piles of old metal roofs, stacks of wooden pallets.

The equipment survived about a decade and the dump site survived 16 years. In 2018 after several outbreaks of fires and constant complaints of the public the PMAIB dump was finally covered up with a layer of dirt. This took place as Mayor Jerry Hynds took over the Municipality in 2018. The island’s refuse management problem was never solved, but only covered up and shifted to a new, adjacent site.

A new site for the growing municipality was needed and Roatan Electric Company (RECO) and Roatan Municipality worked together to secure land nearby the old dump. The site was just raw land devoid of trees yet it to serve as a “temporary” dumping site.

RECO purchased a six-acre property for around $250,000 and donated it to Roatan Municipality. In exchange RECO had promised to put a garbage incinerator on the site and use the capped dump site for a solar farm. Thus RECO has become a party to the Roatan garbage management fiasco.

Kelcy Warren, the American billionaire and owner of RECO, residing sometime on Barbareta, has focused a try-just-about-anything and see-if-it-works strategy for the power company. RECO has run its Wärtsilä generators on natural gas supplied from Warren’s US energy operation.

To the tune of $7 million it has recycled old and obsolete wind turbines for a wind farm and it built two solar plants that destroyed island forest and leveled hills. Warren, trying to add to his hodge-podge island eclectic empire, has been eyeing methane gas from Roatan’s mismanaged dump as another source of energy.

Unfortunately the municipal dump is a disaster that could happen before RECO gets control of the site. With each passing year, the probability of a catastrophic event increases. With the mismanagement of garbage and the proximity of the site to the sea and reef there is a danger of contaminating the island’s marine ecosystem.

Another catastrophic scenario, one of several, is where garbage is carried by water in a natural gulley, passes the mangroves and is carried by the rain water onto the reef of the entire Sandy Bay. This is unfortunately quite possible and would be a truly an ecological calamity.

Just a few months ago a large part of the gully has been interrupted with a mound of dirt mixed with trash. Now the “temporary” dump has a permanent leech pond with floating trash, plastics and rusting pieces of metal.

The volume of the garbage deposited at the dump is growing by 20 percent every year. “When I left we had 18 tons of garbage a day,” says Julio Galindo, ex Roatan Mayor and owner of AKR tourist resort, about the volume of garbage picked that the Roatan Municipal since 2017. “There are probably 40-50 tons [collected] a day now.”

Strong, dangerous chemicals, pollutants and plastics are sunk into the soil below the dump site. The engine of Roatan’s tourist industry – Sandy Bay, is just a hundred meters away, down current from the garbage dump. “Everything is there: car batteries, oils,” says Galindo. “The mangrove not enough to stop the runoff”

There is another, just as scary scenario where the island’s aquifer becomes contaminated by the refuse from the dump. For the past four years chemicals, oils and other contaminants leached into the soil below the “temporary” dump. These hazardous liquids and liquefied contaminants travel dozens of meters down through soil eventually reaching the aquifer used for drinking water across the island.

RECO has become a party to the Roatan garbage management fiasco.

At least the original PMAIB dump had retention walls and polyurethane liner. The “temporary” dump site has none of that. A clear sign of the toxicity of the dump is how, after just a few months, large trees that were left at the “temporary” garbage site had died. They couldn’t handle the pollutants, and toxic chemicals in the ground that slipped in and killed their root system.

There are signals of increased amount of refuse being found all over the island. Over the last several years trash in unprecedented quantities has been washing on to the reef in Palmetto and as far as Camp Bay. The tags from the food products place the origin of the trash as made in Honduras.

The problems with the Roatan garbage dump are not limited to what we could see, or to the solid waste itself. The old garbage site that has been on fire for years has likely not been stabilized and is another disaster waiting to happen. “The dump fire is probably still burning,” says Vernon Albert, a builder with experience in water and waste management from US who has been living and working on Roatan since 2005. “The 4 mm polyurethane heat-sealed liner is probably compromised due to the fire,” says Vernon.

The surface fire that had started on the PMAIB dump in 2013 was finally extinguished in 2018. Roatan Municipality had extinguished the surface fires by bringing in masses of dirt to cover the original dump that has not solved the problem of containing the fires that likely still smolder underneath the dirt cap.

But while the smoke has kept Roatanians preoccupied, the current covering up of the problem does not. The unsightly sight and foul smell is not only a nuisance, but they are also causing diseases and lowering property values in areas close to the dump.

Strong, dangerous chemicals, pollutants and plastics are sunk into the soil.

Galindo has more thoughts on Roatan Municipalities’ handling of the dump in Mud Hole. “The garbage dump is not temporary, it’s been four years now,” says Galindo. “I sold them [Roatan Municipality] 73 acres of land I regret selling them. They haven’t done anything with it,” says Julio Galindo, whose Anthony’s Key Resort is just two miles down from the current garbage dump.

The smell from the burning refuse site has been a headache for property owners and for tourists. The few trees that have been left at the site have died. Their roots were poisoned by the toxic seepage of the garbage: the battery chemicals, the industrial oils, Freon and rust.

There are other people very concerned with what environmental hazard and environmental disaster the dump has been. Nick Bach, of Roatan Marine park also thinks that some trash has been washed from the “temporary Roatan Municipal Dump. “The majority [of trash] comes from the colonias where there is inadequate trash removal and people just throw most of it on the streets, or in the creeks,” said Bach.

Some environmental voices have been critical of the looming environmental calamity. “This temporary dump is a disaster. It doesn’t have a containment wall, and practically has no maintenance,” said Joel Amaya. “There is one or two creeks that take the garbage to the sea, to the mangroves.”

Environmental group such as Bay Islands Conservation Association (BICA) on the other hand have placed the blame of the unfolding environmental disaster on bureaucratic hurdles. “The process of a technical landfill requires an environmental license, which requires the respective studies, which don’t happen overnight,” said Irma Brady, founder of BICA.

“The dump fire is probably still burning.”

The reason why the garbage dump site has been mismanaged for over two decades is also a question of priorities. Roatan Municipality spent millions of dollars to fix national roads while leaving their “temporary” garbage dump with practically no attention. While Roatan Municipality under Jerry Hynds (2018-2022) has embarked on a campaign of building new roads and rebuilding national roads network on the island, the building of a new dump has been placed on the back burner. Also RECO has spent millions of dollars on new solar projects while the site of the temporary garbage dump is a chemical wasteland.

There are few things more important than air and water and earth that we plant our food crops in. The Roatan municipal garbage dump has been affecting all of these issues.

It is also the issue of legacy. Neither municipal government nor any person is entitled to endanger or squabble resources passed onto him by prior generations. Sadly, now islanders find themselves allowing the destruction of the very environment that raised them.

Roatan’s Mayor Arrested in Island’s Biggest Drug Bust Ever

ATIC (Technical Criminal Investigation Agency) police agents performed the arrest after received information about major drug shipment arriving on the island via sea and being transferred to another location where they would be picked up to continue their journey north. ATIC road block in Brick Bay stopped a red water truck suspected to carry the drugs and a red Toyota Land Cruiser that fallowed it and attempted to make a U-turn.

The water truck was driven by Efraín Santos, Francisco Henríquez and Jorge Rosales and the Toyota was driven by Mayor Hynds. Instead of 2,000 gallons of water the truck’s cistern contained 2,000 kilos of cocaine and the four suspects were arrested.

Mayor Hynds was allowed to remain in his vehicle, but was eventually handcuffed and transferred to the Honduran Naval Station in French Harbour. The water truck with license plates AAM 7220 and Liberal Party 2021 election sticker on its dashboard was moved to the Honduran Naval station in French Harbor. The intercepted cocaine represents roughly two days of cocaine consumption in the US, were unloaded and inventoried.

The next day the four suspects and some of the drugs were flown by military plane to Tegucigalpa for further investigation. Mayor Hynds owns several large waterfront island businesses and properties including Island Shipping, Roatan Shipyard and is partner in the Mahogany Bay cruise ship port. ATIC agents began searches of some of these businesses.

The bust is timed as Hurricane Ida moved north of Roatan towards the Gulf of Mexico just hours prior to the bust. Drug smugglers often use rough weather and moonless nights to facilitate their operations.

Honduras has been on a cocaine trafficking route to US since circa 1974 when CIA’s pilot Barry Seal established a series of landing strips and beacons from Colombia through Panama and onto Louisiana and later Mena, Arkansas. Seal also begun the history of cocaine busts on Roatan when his twin-engine Merlin plane was apprehended at the island’s airport with 40 kg of cocaine in 1979.

Mexican Multinational Expands Roatan’s Cruise Ship Dock a mid Controversy and Exposes Island’s Double Standards

In 2018 ITM Group has purchased a majority stake in the Port of Roatan cruise ship terminal from Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. ITM begun work on second berth and has planes to open it at the end of 2019. IMT is expanding by 500% the area of attractions “adventure islands” with restaurants, aviary, rays, kayaking, for cruise ship passengers. An investment of around $30 million.

While the money are jobs are attractive to many, some see hidden dangers of the expansion. “The people are for dock expansion, but not for ‘Disney Land’ expansion they are doing,” says Aleynzka Grant Watler, Constellation bight resident. “We contacted SERNA in December and they still haven’t sent an inspector.” Indeed, the people of Roatan and Constellation Bight have been left in the dark. “We don’t know the shape, size positioning of the island,” said Lean about the Port of Roatan non-transparent filling in of land in Constellation Bight.

There are numerous concerns about the damage to the coral, change of tides and currents in Constellation Bight and closing of a public swimming beach. “SERNA should not have issued permit to remove the coral,” says Francis Lean, executive director of the Marine Park. Lean is not alone in seeing the double standard of life on Roatan. “Environmental concerns and agencies are only a front to control which projects get through and which ones don’t,” said Kaveh Lahijani, owner of Little French Key that employs 80 full time people. “There are far greater forces at play than proper permitting, processing and protection of natural resources and environment of Roatán.”

Cruise ship tourism boom of the last ten years has strained Roatan’s infrastructure to its limits.

Despite numerous requests by Paya Magazine, Port of Roatan management, nor ITM has not answered any questions regarding their port expansion. “The community is against the project,” says Lean, but “this is a done deal unless the community stands up against this right now.”

Locals indeed are speaking up, but no one is listening. “We don’t want this Disneyland,” says Alex Watler, the secretary of the Constellation Bight patronato. Watler feels the community has been sidelined, sacrifices for personal interests of politicians and big companies. “We contacted the governor, fiscalia, minister of tourism, Ministerio Publico, BICA. They didn’t even want to see us, or made empty promises,” says Watler.

Constellation Bight is beautiful bight, but the constant turning of giant cruise ship propellers has damaged much of the coral in the area. While the environment has suffered, people have made profit from property values and excursions offered nearby. Marco Galindo Sr., owner of Gumbalimba Park that caters to cruise shippers, says that the property values have already doubled and “Now they will multiply a thousand percent.”

Watler sees double standards in how islanders and big business like ITM are treated. “A man had three fish pots [traps] here [in Constellation Bight] and Marine Park came in so fast and confiscated the traps. But now when there is so much damage, they don’t do a thing,” says Watler.

“I even told Jerry [Roatan’s Mayor Jerry Hynds]: you guys are going little guys like Little French Cay [for their lack of environmental permit] but do nothing about the damage done here.” While Little French Cay, a tourist destination several miles away from the port, is a fraction of size of Port of Roatan it gathered wrath of Municipal and mainland government in form of inspections, raids and fines. “This area [Port of Roatan] would not be open to general local public and would only really benefit the foreign investors intending to keep the cruise ship passengers and their dollars within the confines of the port,” said about the Port of Roatan expansion Lahijani.

The second Port of Roatan dock is planned to accommodate larger, Oasis size cruise ships like the Allure of the Seas. “These cruise ships are the future,” says Marco Galindo Sr. about the megaship bringing not 3,000-4,000 passengers but 7,000.

Some other businessmen who operate out of the existing Port of Roatan dock also feel that bigger ships and more passengers will leave plenty of cruise-shippers to leave the port and spend money on their attractions on Roatan proper. “I employ 20 people and 20 families are dependent on the cruise ship tourist,” says Vidal Villeda, 53, who owns Chocolate factory stands in two Roatan cruise ship ports and a chocolate factory center in West End.

Villeda is renting a three meter by three-meter stand at the cruise ship dock for $100 a cruses ship day. Villeda says that his rent hasn’t gone up since the Mexican conglomerate took over the Port of Roatan except for the maintenance fee of $50 a month. ‘They are brining bigger boats,” Villeda says about the Mexican conglomerate. “The more cruise ship tourist will come the better.”

The uncontrolled cruise ship tourism boom of the last ten years has strained Roatan’s infrastructure to its limits, attracted tens-of-thousands of mainland labor migrants and caused environmental damage to reef and soil that is impossible to enumerate in dollars. “If we keep destroying trees, it’s a matter of time and we will be like Haiti,” says Galindo Sr. who remains pessimistic about the long-term growth of the island. “In 15-20 years’, time we will be charging islanders Lps. 500 to hug a tree.”

Roatan’s love affair with fast growth and cruise shippers doesn’t only end in Port of Roatan or Mahogany Bay. The Santos Guardiola is financing a study to find out the best location for a cruise ship terminal in New Port Royal. This would bring a third cruise ship terminal to the island. “Santos Guardiola has a lot to offer at the East End of the island,” says Galindo. “It’s going to happen. It [Roatan] will be a cruise ship island,” says Galindo.

Relying on only one industry for the sustainment of the island is like putting all one’s eggs in one basket. Twenty years ago, Roatan was an island with several industries: fishing industry, seafood packing industry, dive industry, construction industry and cruise ship was yet another industry. “If cruise ships leave, we will starve to death,” says Galindo Sr.

Island Team Brings Hope and Glory to the Island

Honduras’ national football team has made great strides since its first international match in 1921 when it lost 10-1 to Guatemala. The “Catrachos” qualified three times for the FIFA World Cup: in 1982, 2010 and 2014. Football is a serious business here, so much so that in 1969 a football match between Honduras and El Salvador sparked riots that fueled existing tensions and ended up in a full blown war. That was almost half a century ago and now times have changed.

Central American football has made great strides in recent years and Costa Rica and Honduras have the best teams in the region. Honduras is ranked 63rd in FIFA world rankings.

Roatan has had a presence in these Honduran successes. In all three games that the Catrachos played in the South Africa World Cup in 2010, Georgie Welcome, a Roatan born striker, played a leading role. Welcome began his career at Arsenal, Roatan’s first division team.

HUMBLE BEGINNINGS

Arsenal Football Team was started by Russell Borden, Darcie Martinez and Jay Hynds in 1997. “We were looking for a name and Russell came up with Arsenal, and since it was a popular team back then, it just stayed that way,” says Leyland Woods, the team’s first coach. Arsenal’s roots are in French Cay where they practiced on a sandy patch of land bordered by mangroves. “That was our home field, this is where we trained,” says Leyland Woods who is now the owner of the team.

At first the team played other Honduran non-federated teams. Arsenal beat other island teams to go to a tournament in Santa Barbara and then the islanders got a rude awakening: the Honduran rules football are determined by who you know and where you play. “Our opponents were late one hour to the game, which mean we won. They convinced us to play anyway and challenge this later. But when we did and lost, they said we couldn’t challenge,” says Woods.

This is how legends get made: the Santa Barbara team arrived cramped and tired

Arsenal was about to enter the dragon’s den of Honduran football. “On a rainy day in 1999 in Las Colinas we decided to federate the team,” Woods says, recalling that fateful day.

At first the owners tried to buy a second division team and move it to Roatan, but that involved permission from Honduras Football Federations and plenty of red tape. “So we just decided to federate in third division and move up to second,” says Woods. That took four years.

It was 2003 and Arsenal ended up playing against a Santa Barbara team in the finals to ascend into the second division. After tying 0:0 at home, the Santa Barbara team lost the second game 1:0 in Los Fuertes, but then challenged the result saying that the Los Fuertes field didn’t fulfill the minimum size standards. The Honduran Football Federation sided with Santa Barbara and ruled for the final game to be replayed at a neutral venue. When Arsenal got to pick that neutral field and they picked Trujillo, at sea level and about a 10 hours drive by bus from Santa Barbara. “I told them: ’you’re lucky there isn’t an accredited regulation field in Gracias a Dios, or that is where you would be playing’,” said Woods.

This is how legends get made. The Santa Barbara team arrived cramped and tired, not ready for the next morning’s match in hot Trujillo. Arsenal chartered a boat that took them directly from French Harbour to the Trujillo dock in less than two hours on a comfortable journey. Arsenal dominated the game and won 1:0. “Everyone [in Honduras] knew about this. We were famous before we even made it to second division,” said Woods.

In 2007 Arsenal almost made the impossible happen. They made it into the finals and challenged Deportes Savio to a two-game playoff for a spot in the Honduran first division. After losing 1:0 away the second game was played to a full stadium in Coxen Hole. The field was originally a privately owned baseball field surrounded by a temporary corrugated zinc fence: typical island ingenuity and improvisational style.

The entire island held their breath as Arsenal came within one goal of beating Deportes Savio and making it to the big leagues. “But we just couldn’t do it. We had no stadium that would qualify for first division. Perhaps the loss turned out for the best,” says Woods. A decade ago Arsenal, Roatan, and its owner just weren’t ready for the Honduran premiere league. There wasn’t enough money, not enough fans, not enough infrastructure to handle the success. “We would have to play in Tela or La Ceiba and the traveling costs would kill us,” says Woods.

HOME STADIUM

Now two of eight teams in Honduras’ northern second division are based on Roatan. There are two fields qualified for division two play: the Coxen Hole stadium and the field at Lucy Point in Oak Ridge.

The Coxen Hole field, where Arsenal trains and plays every other week, slopes a drastic 36” from north to south giving a clear advantage to a team playing on the north side. “When we flip the coin we always try to lose so we could choose to play the second half down hill and with the wind behind our shoulders,” says Woods.

Woods envisions a Coxen Hole stadium for 1,500 fans, changing rooms for both teams, referees, and lights permitting games to be played on Saturday evenings – a prime time for attracting fans. Woods wants entire families to watch Arsenal play and enjoy music and meals after the game. “It wouldn’t interfere with church, beach, family,” says Woods.

They made it into the finals and challenged Deportes Savio to a two-game playoff

While the big obstacle in achieving this dream is cost, others share Woods’ vision. According to Woods, congressman Ron McNab has been promised Lps. 4 million from the central government to improve the stadium in Coxen Hole. Jerry Hynds, the new mayor of Roatan, is a football fan and promised support in improving football infrastructure on the western side of the island. “Once the stadium is there then the first division is an open door,” says Paul Jeffries, advisor to the team and owner.

The key elements in keeping Arsenal running in the black are sponsors and ticket sales. The ticket prices to the game are a flat 50 Lempiras. “We started with 100 Lps. but we had to go backwards,” says Woods. Around 400-500 people come to each Roatan game, but according to Woods the team would need regular attendance of 1,000 to make Arsenal a profitable team.

Sol Gas, Serranos, Island Shipping, Galaxy, and Madeyso are the Arsenal sponsors and have their logos displayed on team’s shirts. Half of the additional cost is covered by Woods out of pocket, mainly from his Tropical AC cooling company. “If we got the acknowledgment we wouldn’t have enough space on the shirts for other sponsors,” says Woods.

The biggest expense are travel and referee salaries: Lps. 15,000. “We try to have three local referees at our games to reduce that and just have a main referee from the coast,” says Woods. Arsenal is considered a consistent upper tier team in Honduran second division.

The salaries are a bit higher and the opportunities to get noticed and picked up by division one teams are greater. “We tell our players: ‘You gonna get your shoes, but it’s all about sacrifice and dedication if you’d like to be a professional player. You gonna sacrifice you body, time, money to be a professional,’” says Woods.

You gonna sacrifice you body, time, money to be a professional

The higher salaries paid by Arsenal are noticed by mainland players. “That brings a bit of resentment from other division two teams,” says Jeffries. The controversy and a bit of resentment mobilizes fans. “We fill the stadium when we come to play on the mainland,” says Woods. Still “They [mainland teams] are still complaining about the expense of traveling and playing on Roatan.”

While Arsenals motto is “one island, one team, one love,” with the majority of Roatan residents being born on the mainland, locals fans often end up cheering for the visiting team. Things get especially rowdy when Roatan plays a home game against Social Sol of Olanchito – place of origin of many new Roatanians. “Sometimes our fans are outnumbered by theirs,” says Woods.

TOUGH ISLAND PLAYERS

While a few Roatan-born players are branded for lack of discipline they are also known for being tough and quick. “Island guys don’t get hurt. They don’t need a masseuse after the game, you don’t need to be injecting them,” says Woods.

Some of the most talented island players come from Santa Helena and Pandy Town. “In Santa Helena there is nothing to do, so guys just focus on football,” says Jeffries. “They are tall, physically strong, they are tough people. They work hard and play hard,” says about Santa Helena players Woods. Already Roatan and Arsenal have produced several great football players. Georgie Welcome, a striker originally from Coxen Hole, played with Arsenal from 2004 to 2008. Welcome represented Honduras many times and played for the country in World Cup in 2010. He even played a season at FC Monaco. Georgie started in the national Honduran selection while playing with Arsenal – a second division team, a first in Honduras’ football history.

Several other Arsenal players made a name for themselves on a national and international stage. Edrick Johnson from West End is now a back up goalie for Olimpia. Shannon Welcome, a forward form French Harbour, plays for a second division team in Greece. Kenzi Abbot from French Harbour played for a first division Tocoa.

The 2007-08 were the glory days for Arsenal with Georgie Welcome, Shannon and Jose Anthony

The 2007-08 seasons were the glory days for Arsenal with Georgie Welcome, Shannon and Jose Anthony all playing together. “We haven’t recuperated this caliber of players,” says Woods. Arsenal also started Jose Anthony ‘El Caballo’ Torres who has played a record number of times in the national selection of Panama. Yet keeping good players, especially good strikers, is a difficult task for Arsenal as for any division two team. “Every time we get a good player they buy him out,” says Woods.

Coach Pasquale Mendez RIP developed the core of Arsenal players between 2003 and 2009. The current coach is Hernan Contreras was an Arsenal player and a manager before stepping into coaches’ shoes.

Arsenal’s strongest lines are defense and mid field. They are usually lacking in strength of forwards and goalies with the best players scooped up by division one teams. “We are a pretty young team,” says Woods. The 30 Arsenal players on the roster average 22 years of age so the future looks promising.

Many changes in island and Honduran football lie ahead. FIFA is pressuring teams for significant changes. This will likely result is the first division going from ten to 12 teams and the second division teams dropping from in number from 28 to 18 or 20. Next season the second division players will be considered professional, not semi-professional as they have been up to this point. Arsenal will be required to sponsor a women’s team.

There are now two division three leagues on the island: eight teams play in Roatan Municipality and seven in Santos Guardiola Municipality. There are six fields certified for division tree play on Roatan: Sandy Bay, Coxen Hole, Los Fuertes, Punta Gorda, Diamond Rock and Lucy Point.

In 2017 Arsenal was joined by Dortmund Los Fuertes in division two. Dortmund is owned by Ray Mayorquin who founded the team in February 2011. With two strong division two island teams the future for Roatan football looks bright.

Ing. Gustavo Isnardi Jr. With machinery ready to begin road patching and construction.

Island Roads are Stressed to their Limits

Roatan never had a master plan for its road system. The island’s roads were never zoned and the current road system is the result of organic growth: occasional availability of funds; local and national politics; and access to construction equipment, spare parts and fuel. 

The 2017-18 rain season has brought a record rainfall to the island the road system has been put under tremendous stress. In the end however, the current situation is the result of tough, hilly terrain, proximity to the sea, poor original construction, and lack of regular road and culvert maintenance.

The very fact that Roatan is able to operate and in some areas thrive this massive challenge to its basic infrastructure points to the resilience of its people and businesses.

Across the Caribbean numerous islands including: Puerto Rico, Anguila, Barbuda, the US Virgin Islands, British Virgin Islands, Dominica,, the Bahamas, and the Dominican Republic remain in recovery mode after the devastating effects of the 2017 storm  season. Hurricanes Maria & Irma alone cut a swath of destruction across roughly 30% of the region.

The Caribbean economy relies heavily on the 25 million tourists that visit the region each year. For those islands whose economies depend on tourism, this recovery will be long and expensive. Allen Chastanat, Prime Minister of Saint Lucia wrote: “Your visit to our islands is more important now than ever. By coming to the Caribbean you will be contributing to our assistance to our fellow islands who are still recovering.” Roughly 7 million tourists looking for an alternative Caribbean destination in 2018. The crisis in eastern Caribbean is Roatan’s opportunity. Once the road conditions are stabilized, Roatan could experience a boom as efficiency of doing business, and just going on about one’s life will improve.

While islanders and tourists are going about their business, everything has its limits. Jerry Hynds, sworn in as Roatan Mayor on January 25, declared a state of emergency on the island because of the road and garbage situation.

For Roatan the road to recovery will likely be long and not without pitfalls. It’s not easy doing business without basic infrastructure: roads or garbage collection. “How do you attract foreign investment if the place is not attractive enough?,” asks Julio Galindo, ex Roatan Mayor and ex Bay Islands Congressman.

Roatan is an island living a split existence. On one hand there are examples of XXI century technologies and operations like the gas and wind powered Roatan Electric Company [RECO] and some of the largest, safest dive shops in the world. On the other hand, the basic infrastructure of the island like roads and garbage disposal system are in shambles.

But why is that and what caused this splitting of island’s personality?

The Very First Roads

Before any roads existed on Roatan, the majority of transport on the island was done by boat, on foot, on horseback, or on a motorcycle. Until the late 1960s the most efficient way to travel up and down island was by boat named ‘Norma Don’ captained by Wilkie Edwards leaving Oak Ridge to Coxen Hole. ‘Norma Down’ would leave Oak Ridge every day at 6am, stop in Jonesville, French Harbour and arrive in Coxen Hole around noon, then head back.

Vehicular road transport on the island began with one short stretch of road wide enough for a truck to pass. In 1965-6, Sam Grant used what was the first vehicle on the island, a jeep truck, to traverse that first drivable road on the island between the landing strip in Coxen Hole and the town itself. In 1969 Walter McNab began transporting passengers on a windy, dirt road between French Harbour and Coxen Hole.

In 1974, a six kilometer dirt road between Port Royal, Diamond Rock, Camp Bay and Camp Bay village was built. Marvin Grant, an American with a USAID contract did much of the work. “We built the road around Wilks Point ahead so the government wouldn’t mess it up,” says Eric Anderson.

In the 1970s the east of the island began developing and in 1973 Eric Anderson flew Jacobo Goldstein, Honduras’ first minister of tourism, in a small Cessna to show him a potential site for a future international airport in Diamond Rock. “It was flat, it could be 8000 feet long, the land had few owners and it was much less expensive than to extend the landing strip in Coxen Hole,” said Eric Anderson. Anderson came to the island in 1962 with his father Roy Anderson and became a Cessna dealer for Central America. Obviously, this plan never came to fruition.

On the east end of the island sacks of flower were dropped from a helicopter to mark the way for the bulldozer to work its way through the bush. “We used to do stuff like that,” says Erick Anderson. Flower was cheap and exploded on impact in the canopy marking the work for the bulldozer.”Between 1970 and 1975 a dirt road between Coxen Hole and West End was constructed. It opened access to the West End and Sandy Bay, which was just a tiny fishing community with no tourist facilities. Some of the original work was done by one person: Domingo Andino, a D6 tractor operator paid by the central government .

Sam Grant used what was the first vehicle on the island

In 1986-90, during the presidency of Jose Azcona the Brick Bay to West End road was paved with 10 cm asphalt. President Callejas continued the paving from Brick Bay to Oak Ridge but using a much thinner 2.5 cm asphalt paving. Thus the majority of today’s large potholes are in that portion of the main road.

In 1992-93 a road between West End and West Bay was built using a tractor from Anthony’s Key Resort. Thus a meandering 48 kilometer back bone of the island: from West Bay to Camp Bay Village was created.

Roads Today

While the roads on Roatan are the worst they have ever been in their entire history, that history isn’t that long. “I am surprised the roads lasted this much,” says Bill Etches, a West End resident. According to Ing. Gustavo Isnardi Jr. there are 7,000 cars moving about on Roatan, placing constant stress on the roads. The island roads are constantly trafficked by heavy machinery, subject to frequent landslides, and are further weakened by water runoff. “The worse enemy of asphalt is water,” says Ing. Isnardi.

The 2017-2018 rain season exacerbated what was already a stressed road system. The Roatan Weather Facebook page reported 70.55 inches of rain during the last three months of 2017 which is roughly twice the average rainfall for the same period recorded in any of the past 23 years. Some of the most damaged roads are in Los Fuertes and Harbor. These areas have only 2.5 cm of asphalt, their drainage and maintenance have been neglected for years, and they handle very high levels of traffic. On most days a gigantic pothole by the RECO plant slows traffic to a crawl. “We are on the edge of what this island can take. There are problems where there really shouldn’t be,” said Samir Galingo, General Manager of Anthony’s Key Resort.

Drivers swerve to avoid potholes crossing into oncoming traffic

Some communities ended up cut off almost entirely. The only road linking French Harbour and Crawfish Rock is reminiscent of something from magic garden: mud road, canopy of trees spanning all across the road. For 500 meters around Tres Flores the road is one of the most beautiful vistas on Roatan looking down a ridge towards north shore beaches of Pristine Bay. Beyond that point, for about two kilometers, the road has been practically destroyed.

Residents of of Crawfish Rock have to pay exorbitant amounts of money just to be able to go to the supermarkets across the island. “We have to pay 500 Lps. to a guy to take us to Eldon’s every time we need to buy something,” said Celso Connor, a Crawfish Rock resident.

The lack of alternatives to main roads puts pressure on already exhausted infrastructure. “We need to have a paved north side road. That is the only way forward,” said Julio Galindo.

Another tricky part in creating a system of roads on the island is appropriating private land for the roads and their right of way. It’s often not easy. “As mayor you have to convince and incentivize people to give up a portion of their land for a municipal road,” says Julio Galindo. “But some people want an arm and a leg for their right of way. (..) I always tried not to expropriate people – buy them out at a value of their land.” Some roads ended up much longer, and indirect: a good example of this is the paved road around the Coxen Hole stadium.

The constant water and runoff from construction sites and swollen creeks damages the existing roads daily. Since the early 2000s Roatan Municipality would not allow for heavy construction or any road work to be done during the rainy season from October through January. “There is a moratorium on construction, but in this [Mayor Dorn Ebanks] administration, no one is enforcing it,” said Galindo, who sits on the Roatan Municipal council.

The roads took a heavy toll on the bodies and suspension of vehicles all over the island. Roatan potholes are a cash cow for mechanics and vendors of auto shocks. The potholes and poor condition of the roads increase traffic accidents as drivers swerve to avoid potholes crossing into oncoming traffic. In other words Roatan potholes cost lives.

Fixing the Roads

Much of the road construction over the last 20 years on Roatan was done by one company- Bay Islands Development Company [BIDCC] established on the island by Ing. Gustavo Isnardi Jr., a Paraguayan born engineer, in 1994. More recently, in 2007, BIDCC founded a consortium with the larger San Pedro Sula based PRODECON in order to bid for road construction in all three Bay Islands.

“The problem has been for the government to find funds,” said Ing. Gustavo Isnardi Jr. The most recent construction contract of 30 mln Lps. was allocated as an emergency contract by the central government from funds of ZOLITUR, INSEP and IHT. “I get a feeling the government wants us to put up some money to construct these roads, but they don’t expect it in other departments,” said Julio Galindo.

The contract for rebuilding a first portion of Roatan roads was awarded in December 2017 and involved cutting and filling all the potholes between Flowers Bay and West Bay, concrete paving the 200 meters paving at West Bay Mall, and “White topping, ” or placing a 15 cm concrete layer of pavement, on top of the two kilometer section of road in Flowers Bay. That however would be just the beginning.

The road construction equipment necessary for the construction was shipped in mid-December 2017 and BICD was waiting for better weather. With the contract specifying January 30 as the last work day the funds could leave the island. “We are working on extension of the dates of the contract,” said Ing. Isnardi.

On Roatan, like in the rest of Honduras, road construction and maintenance fall under several jurisdictions. There are national roads, there are municipal roads and then there are private roads.

The longest national road runs from West Bay all the way to Camp Bay Village, a distance of 48 kilometers with 38 kilometers of it paved, but with pavement in varying conditions. At times national roads were paved with both asphalt and in the last 6 years concrete. In 2010-14, during President Pepe Lobo the national Coxen Hole to Flowers Bay road was paved with a 2.5 cm concrete coating- white top, with central government approval, but using Roatan Municipal funds.

With several jurisdictions the maintenance and repair work has become a constant challenge. Legally, the national roads patching should be done only by national contractors.

During Julio Galindo mayorship, between 2010 and 2014, in just three years Roatan Municipality managed to pave 23 km of concrete roads, a distance from West End to French Harbour, just with municipal monies. “I had to pay the debt of previous administration for the first year, so we ended up working only three years,” says Galindo.

Roatan should be able to pave every last road on the island just with municipal funds

What becomes evident is quite surprising. If one Roatan mayor is able to pave 23 kilometers of concrete roads in just three years, Roatan should be able to pave every last road on the island just with municipal funds. In theory at least, no need for the largesse and straightjacket of the central government.

When Galindo was mayor, he paved roads and pressured central government to pave roads on the island from 2010-2014. Road paving begun in Gravel Bay, Mud Hole and large stretches of road were paved in Coxen Hole and West End. “By law the municipality can spend up to 40% of its budget on operating expenses, a minimum of 60% has to be used for improvements,” says Galindo. He did it all with 194 municipal employees.

Mayor Dorn Ebanks administration (2014-18) has done almost no road paving at all while the municipality employees went from 198 people to 300. Now with a new mayor Jerry Hynds hopes are high.

The highest quality paved roads on the island, likely of 20 kilometers in total, are private. Developers of Lighthouse Estates, Pristine Bay, Parrot Tree, Lawson Rock and many others have spent millions building and maintaining these roads. Private developers connected remote parts of the island: the Jackson to Marbella was one such private road that was municipalized during Julio Galindo mayorship.

The Conundrum

There are two types of asphalt paving on Roatan: a 10 cm and 2.5 cm thick. “During [president] Callejas time they were even using pavement of 30 cm,” said Isnardi. But subsequent Honduran governments began skimping on asphalt allocation. The West End to Brick Bay road was a “carpeta” road built with 10 cm thick asphalt. The Gravels Bay to West Bay and Brick Bay to Oak Ridge roads was built with thinner “doble traccion” road with 2.5 cm thick asphalt. These thinly paved roads are in biggest trouble.

According to Isnardi while concrete roads are around 20% more expensive to construct than asphalt roads, they are much more resistant. According to road builder Luis Alvarado, building a kilometer of asphalt road on the island costs around 7 million Lempiras, and a concrete road construction should come out around 9.8 million Lps.

In the next four years many of Roatan roads are likely to end up with 15 cm concrete white top, but how soon, that remains to be seen. There is a proposal to budget 85 million Lps. a year for improving and paving Bay Islands roads for the next 10 years, but Ing. Isnardi doesn’t know when the bid would be.