Recreational water quality gets high quality attention
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Contact: Shannon Lebourne
Wednesday 27 October 2010 – The government of Saint Lucia has approved the implementation of a project to improve the quality of recreational water along the country`s north west coast.
Mainstreaming Saint Lucia’s National Plan of Action through a North West Coast Recreational Water Quality Demonstration Project, is being implemented in partnership with the Caribbean Environmental Health Institute (CEHI).
Sustainable Development Officer in the Ministry of Sustainable Development and the Environment, Levern Walker, says as part of the project several water quality tests will be undertaken to ensure the existence of good recreational water quality along Saint Lucia`s north- west coast.
“The whole intention of this plan of action through a recreational water quality demonstration project is to develop a mechanism to ensure that any pollutants entering the waters whether riverine or coastal is reduced. However, before we do this we have to identify where the pollutant sources are coming from and what the pollutants are.”
As part of the water quality project,a short questionnaire was given to a number of business, agencies and residents located within the project site.
The Sustainable Development Officer says the data captured will be used to mitigate and manage pollutant sources towards better coastal water quality and overall environmental protection.
“We will go to a number of businesses along the north-west coast to try to identify what their waste management practices are. We will seek to find out whether they produce solid or liquid waste and if they do, we want to find out whether they treat the waste and to what extent it is treated and discharged. “People get worried when individuals come around asking such questions thinking that they will be charged or penalised, but that’s not the case; the whole intention of this project is to try to gather information which will be used to developed proposals on how we move forward in addressing the various issues.”
Through the implementation of the water quality demonstration project, the government of Saint Lucia also moves one step further in the development of the land-based sources of Marine Pollution Protocol of the Cartagena Convention that recently entered into force.
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