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Living and Learning from Anguilla Salt pond
July 2003

By Kenneth Hodge, CERN correspondent, Anguilla

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What is in a salt pond? Plenty, if you ask the people of East End, a coastal village about four miles from Anguilla's capital, The Valley.

Anguilla's salt ponds are anextremely important conservation area. They protect the island's coast from hurricanes, erosion and flooding and they are home to mangroves which acts as a filter for purifying water. They also serve as catchment basins, trapping sediments.

"The salt ponds have really been a centre of village life in East End for a long time," says a local historian and resident of the area. "It was our main source of water. It was the area around which people graze their animals. Also, people wash their clothes at the spring which goes by around the ponds."

Now, there are efforts to conserve this wetland. An organisation, the Council for the Conservation of the East End Ponds (CCEEP), has been formed to ensure that the ecology of the ponds is preserved for the benefit of the community. CCEEP is also creating opportunities for the community to make money from the ponds through tourism.

"CCEEP's aim is to conserve the ecology of the ponds for future generations," says Arthur Roger, the council's president. "It is to be used as a bird sanctuary and we are hoping it will be a sustainable product for tourism and at the same time help the community out economically."

If the effort of the CCEEP is successful it will get the people from the community involved so that they can make some money either by producing local crafts or painting birds on the ponds, says Roger.

The ponds lie about 200 yards from the village primary school and they have become an important part of the students' education.

"The school children come down here. It's important as a sort of outdoor classroom helping them to understand all about the environment and how we are to keep it clean and beautiful for future generations," says Rogers. "Perhaps they will take a deep interest in it and who knows, maybe in future, you may have some chemist or scientist from the students who are interested in this little project."

The school first started using the ponds as a learning tool in 1998 when students started to come to the ponds and clean them up. A lot has changed with the involvement of the students, says Ingrid Fullerton, one of the teachers at the school instrumental in maintaining the students' involvement in the conservation project

The ponds have given the students the "opportunity to perfect their skill in letter writing, easy writing and related activities," says Fullerton. Also, the project looks set to create some young entrepreneurs according to Fullerton. As part of their tours, the students have done projects for science fairs on the different local plants, which turned out to be very successful. The students' activities would tie into the tourism project latter on.

"Even if their parents are not ready to come on board," says Fullerton, "the students are already planning ways in which they can contribute and earn a living. They are very aware of the fact that many children finish high school and there are no jobs. So they are already looking to get self-employed and to hone the skills that they need in order to do that."

This article is based on a transcription of Island Beat Radio.

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