The race is on to get the Tranquility Park Cemetary at Tomlinson opened for burial

Once the weather holds and there are no further logistical challenges, the new Tranquility Park Cemetery at Tomlinson’s could be ready for the first set of burials within a three-week timeframe.

This is the anticipation of Health Minister Sir Molwyn Joseph, who, during an interview with state media, pointed out a few matters to address over the coming days.

He also acknowledged that the St. John’s Public Cemetary and others across the community are running out of space.

“Well, we are under severe pressure. We are running out of burial sites in Antigua and Barbuda. A month ago, we thought we would have opened just about now, but because of the heavy rains, that has set us back. And so, we’re looking at maybe two or three weeks.

“I don’t want to be held to this because if it rains tomorrow, then it might set us back again. But if we get the right set of conditions, pretty soon,” Joseph said.

He explained further that the team from the Works Ministry and others are pushing hard to ensure the first interment can take place here in the shortest possible time.

In all, there are about 20 acres of land available for the Tranquility Park Cemetery.

Minister Joseph said the burial site will be well-ordered to optimize space.

“When you look into the current St. John’s Cemetery, it’s not a pleasant sight. And we cannot replicate that here. And so there are certain things that we’re going to have to do in terms of the size of the graves, how close they are to each other. And those things are regulated already by legislation here in Antigua. Even down to the depth of the graves, we might have to make some adjustments to that because of the limited space,” the minister said.

He mentioned that technology will be utilized to precisely locate graves.

“For instance, if you come and you say, ‘Listen, I want to see the grave of my mother,’ I say, ‘What’s the name? Mary Jane.’ And you go to the computer, you log in Mary Jane with some other identification, and then you can identify the exact GPS location of that grave. We’re securing the software to do that. So, this is next-level stuff.