Ministerial visit to La Digue   |07 January 2023

Cargo terminal

Minister Derjacques calls for better coordination among agencies to avoid wastage of resources

The Minister for Transport, Antony Derjacques, has affirmed that all projects on La Digue will take into consideration the environment, tourism and the overall green island concept that it represents.

“We are very conscious that the environment must remain intact, which means that La Digue must remain green,” said the minister following his visit to various projects on the island yesterday.

Minister Derjacques was accompanied by the chief executive of the Seychelles Ports Authority (SPA), Sony Payet; the SPA project manager, Franky Laporte; the ministry’s senior legal officer, Kenny Elizabeth; and the project coordinator for inner islands for Seychelles Land Transport Authority (SLTA), Terry Volcère.

The first stop was at the La Digue port, where work is being undertaken to extend this facility. The La Digue port extension is one of SPA’s major projects, which seeks to modernise and improve security in the area.

The project involves the construction of a 126-metre quay wall that will be used as a cargo terminal. It will provide unloading and loading services, as well as a point of refuelling for the Seychelles Petroleum Company (Seypec). This project is near completion.

According to SPA, this will allow for more secure port operations compared to the current process that is hazardous to passengers walking along the quay.

“We are doing all this to encourage more businesses on La Digue, a bit like we are doing on Praslin. When making such investment, there must be control, regulations and fees to be applied to address the proper use of the port. And this requires continued discussion with the La Digue community,” explained CEO Payet.

The second phase of the project is the dredging of the right hand side of the quay, right in front of the Taroza restaurant, to remove accumulated sand. This will leave room for a larger, safer and deeper docking area for fishing boats and approximately 15 leisure boats such as yachts.

“Today, we can see that we have boats that docked in the sand. The space goes to waste. The previous quay wall is now closer to Taroza. Many boats can no longer use this area. [...] Before the end of this month, we will move to this phase that has already been approved by the concerned authorities. We will remove all this sand and place it on other beaches where there is erosion,” explained Mr Payet.

The existing passenger disembarkation quay will remain.

The La Digue port extension started nine months ago.

“This has taken a lot of effort from SPA and with the new leadership of SPA, we see that things are moving very fast. And we are able to implement several projects for the Diguois,” said Minister Derjacques.

After the completion of phases 1 and 2, SPA plans to focus on surface infrastructure development that will include other commercial stakeholders.

Minister Derjacques also visited three roads on La Digue that feature on SLTA’s project list. There are 13 kilometres of road on the whole island and other road works will start once an ongoing pipe-laying work by PUC is completed.

The first stop was at the Vanilla road, newly surfaced in 2021. It is now almost a foot path after recent works undertaken by PUC. Minister Derjacques is calling on better coordination to ensure that resources do not go to waste.

“We need better planning or else the resources of SLTA and PUC will go to waste,” he strongly recommended.

The delegation also visited the Coco-Ibrid and Pension Michel roads, which are on the agency’s agenda. Coco-Ibrid is currently not on the SLTA budget for 2023. They are both footpaths that serve as access roads to many households.

“It is a road that has been on the SLTA programme for a while. It includes surfacing, drainage and culverts where necessary. But it is currently on hold awaiting the completion of PUC sewage pipe works,” explained the minister.

The Ministry of Transport and SLTA have called on public understanding while the joint projects are underway.

Text & photos contributed