Citrus waste, probable cause of water crisis

A suspicious odor and a lot of dead fish in the South Stann Creek River last Friday left Dangriga residents drinking anything but water and asking more than a few questions. Four days later, many of those questions are still unanswered. At news time tonight, the exact cause of the contamination has yet to be pinpointed, but there are a lot of guesses. Things might be back to normal in the southern town, but as News Five found out on Monday for some people normal has an unusual scent.

The South Stann Creek River no longer carries a bad smell but there is still plenty of floating evidence of last Friday’s aqua crisis.

Cassian Nunez, Dangriga Mayor

“I think Friday was our worst day. The locals are concerned about it and all kinds of people have come to my office with respect to the long term effects and medical impacts later on, but these are justified legitimate concerns. But as I said, actual testing must be made and the results brought forward so we can speak from that authority exactly what it is. But the concerns are there, yes.”

But while the concerns are getting contagious, the scientific reports have been scarce.

Cassian Nunez

“I don’t want to say that it’s all clear, but for all intents and purposes, it seems the water is much more pure. And as I said earlier, we don’t have the chemical formula to ascertain it’s 100% pure, but I believe it is and I’m still looking for those reports.”

When the story broke on Friday, residents had described the stench emanating from the water as citrus waste, pointing up river to the citrus factories as the culprits but…

Cecil Arnold, Environmental Affairs Officer, Del Oro Belize

“At this point in time, we’re not claiming responsibility. We are not saying that we were responsible.”

Cecil Arnold, Environmental Affairs Officer for Del Oro Belize admits that on June 10th one of the company’s leachate ponds had an overflow due to heavy rains, but says the chances of that causing Friday’s incident are slim.

Cecil Arnold

“Stuff that over spilled on the 10th might have hanged up along the river for some reason, but somehow that doesn’t make any sense either and it was during a flood, so it really doesn’t make any sense.”

“It is still puzzling to us the real cause of the problem. We know that people in Dangriga are claiming that there was an obvious smell of citrus and perhaps we cannot dispute that. I cannot say what they were smelling. I we went to Dangriga about 5:30 Friday evening, we did not get that smell. At least I did not get that smell. What I smelled was odor like that, comparable to organic material that had been rotting for a period of time.”

Janelle Chanona

“Even though Del Oro does not claim responsibility, they have come up with a couple theories of their own. Arnold claims employees have seen fishermen throw pesticides into the river to kill fish and lobster and says that could have caused what happened on Friday. He says another possibility could be that the numerous sand pit operations along the river are digging up buried contaminants. But neither of those theories explain the citrus smell.”

This morning, News Five spoke to Chief Environmental Officer Ismael Fabro, who conducted site inspections at the Del Oro ponds on Monday. Fabro says even though there is no direct evidence linking the company to the fish kill and stench, he says the department cannot discount eyewitness reports. Based on those reports, Fabro says the company’s peel dumpsite for Belize Food Products is the most probable source of the incident. In addition, Fabro says because of the way residents described how the fish died, the department believes it was low oxygen levels as opposed poison to led to the fish kill.

But all this is based on “most probable” theories since the department was not able to collect any contaminated water samples because the South Stann Creek River moves comparatively faster than most.

As for Del Oro, Arnold says since the June 10th spill, steps have been undertaken to make sure that it doesn’t happen again. Arnold says for the past 8 months, Del Oro has started several environmentally friendly initiatives that have cost the company about a million dollars. While these ponds are on stream to eventually be phased out, that will take some time.

But there is another side to this story. The smell the people of Dangriga briefly experienced on Friday is what the students and staff of Holy Angels Primary School have endured for more than 2 months.

Elswith Lopez, Principal, Holy Angels Primary School

“It’s like a pigsty, really. And it happens just about all hours of the day.”

“One of the things I’ve found out that it brings a lot of flies, there are a lot of houseflies around. I’m not also sure what happens where, but we’re not able to drink the water around the school compound any more, the water has not been potable.”

The school is currently gets its water, not from the river or WASA. They are connected to factory’s water supply. Lopez says her students and staff have been forced to buy bottled water while at school.

Cecil Arnold

“We are aware of the problem. We are very much in tune with it and we have made a commitment to the community that steps are underway to reduce that odor or eliminate it completely by the time the new school year begins. So we are pursuing that and the commitment is there to have it fixed.”

Janelle Chanona

“So what we’re smelling right now is what it normally smells like or it gets better, worse?”

Elswith Lopez

“This gets worse. I’m counting the days until we’re not here and hopefully when we return that problem would have been solved.”

Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.

The Department of the Environment promises that in the near future it will start monitoring programmes to ensure that contaminants from the factories in the Stann Creek Valley stay out of the waterways. Officials from Del Oro Belize assured News Five of its ongoing commitment to protecting the environment and say its own investigations into Friday’s occurrence continue.

Channel 5 is looking for a reporter to join the staff of one of the region’s most highly honoured television news organizations.

Please bring a resume with two letters of recommendation to 17 Regent Street, Belize City or via email to gbtv@btl.net.