Not everyone agreed with Saturday’s editorial saying the added burden of the announced megaproject “Pearl of China” on the island shouldn’t be insurmountable. That’s to be expected, considering the private-public partnership venture’s sheer magnitude.
To be sure, there are legitimate concerns about the destination’s
carrying capacity in terms of the environment, traffic, utilities, etc. What this would mean for Little Bay Pond and its natural runoff via the beach is an example, especially taking into account that the road at Belair already floods in case of very heavy rainfall.
Then again, the investors have promised to “locate a water source” and one would imagine the lagoon may play a role. Pollution is always a risk, but the Chinese certainly have the technology and knowhow to not only prevent such, but clean and help preserve the pond as well.
Again, the presence of a delegation for the groundbreaking on September 17 ought to provide more insight into pertinent details of the plans. Based on their visit people hopefully will be in a better position to truly judge the intentions.
One aspect that may have created unnecessary confusion is mention of “a million Chinese tourists” per year. Do the math and it becomes obvious that this number might be bit exaggerated.
Assuming an average stay of one week, it would mean close to 20,000 visitors at a time. However, even the huge complex discussed could not accommodate that number by far.
After all, 326 rooms and 450 apartments total 776 units. If one were to calculate five guests per unit, this comes down to 776 x 5 = 3,880 and nowhere near 20,000.
Over 52 weeks that translates to 52 x 3,880 = 201,760 tourists, almost five times fewer than a million. Mind you, that’s with full occupancy year-round, which is highly unlikely.
Those who initiated the project would do well to clearly separate fact from fiction in the future.
