Minister Elizabeth Thompson (left), Permanent Secretary, Lionel Nurse (second from left) and chairman of Caves of Barbados, Selwyn Smith (second from right) listening to Steve Devonish (right) giving a short tour of the redeveloped Harrison's Cave.

TO THE TUNE of $32 million dollars, one of the island's greatest attractions, Harrison's Cave, will officially reopen today.

However, it will only be open for a month, until May 5, to benefit from tourists visiting the island for World Cup.

Minister of Energy and the Environment, Elizabeth Thompson shared this news at Friday's rebranding of Harrison's Cave, St Thomas.

"You are seeing a significant investment in this country's infrastructure at every level, not only for people who are going to come for Cricket World Cup . . . It is an investment for the people of Barbados and for generations yet unborn," she lauded.

She explained that the Cave, which was seeing its first upgrade in last 30 years, had been polluted by the surrounding areas, including agricultural and human activities.

"In an attempt to address that pollution problem . . . . Government had to move with relevant alacrity to stop that level of pollution and as a result, the zone of special environment control was put in place which restricted the kinds of activities that would take place in that geographical space," she said.

Thompson said her ministry was preparing a paper to go before Cabinet to look at how the area was to be treated with "special culture and ecological significance" and to brand it as a special ecological area.

She also announced that the Cave would represent a new "green tourism market" niche for Barbados.

Provisions

"Thirty per cent of the Cave will be powered by total voltaic energy which is entirely consistent with the new green economy initiative the Ministry of Energy and Environment is promoting and which the Prime Minister spoke to at such length during the recent budget," she said.

Other initiatives included the six one-of-a-kind trams to be powered by electricity, composting organics which will save money and reduce the need for landfills, use of rainwater for irrigation, and two on-site sewage treatment plants to be managed by engineers.

Besides her "special environmental provisions", the minister, said she was seeking to create a relationship with the surrounding tourist sites "to maximise their money and recreate linkages in other facilities".

"Government, in recognising its responsibility to other sites not necessarily owned by Government, is specifically going to allow that kind of co-marketing to increase revenue for all of the facilities," she said, noting these would include the Flower Forest, Welchman Hall Gully and the Jack-In-The-Box gully experience.

Harrison's Cave will permanently be open to the public by the end of the year. (TM)