Ministry of Health says don’t swim in Macal River
The recent discoloration of the Macal River where it meets the Chalillo Dam has been a major cause of concern for environmentalists. The Ministry of Health, the Department of Environment and Belize Water Services held a joint press conference today to inform that testing for water quality is taking place. In addition, they are investigating the cause of the turbidity and silt that is being pushed at the mouth of the Chalillo dam.
Jeauvan Hulse, Sr. Environmental Officer, D.O.E.
“A small reservoir, for instance, we would consider Chalillo by the size a very small reservoir, would rapidly lose capacity over time whereas larger facilities may be able to sustain the capacity for an extended period of time, hundreds of years. For us and what was outlined in the environmental impact assessment, the EIA for Chalillo, it was envisioned that the sedimentation would not have been a problem for the next thirty years. However, something would have seemed to push things along more rapidly. There would seem to be quite a lot of sediment coming from the dam. At this point, to jump the gun a bit, we don’t know why. We have our beliefs, we have data that would suggest reasons why this is happening.”
John Bodden, Sr. Public Health Inspector , M.O.H.
“In regards to some of the health concerns that we would have, we have seen that there is an increase in the iron content in the water and there is that need for us to look very carefully at what that means to us in regards to treatment. There is actually the increase in turbidity as well and this would be more a factor for BWS where there will be the increase in cost in terms of ensuring that that suspended matter is actually treated and when you use, for example like chlorine with a high turbidity, then you need increased chlorine to treat it. Definitely, with the level of sediments within the water, we can see very easily that the infiltration gallery pores would be clogged up, which would then mean that we have to react quickly to ensure that we have water in the system and it’s treated and supplied to the public. Currently, our recommendation stands and it’s we’re advising people not to drink water from the river. We’re in that stage where especially fro any sort of heavy metals, we don’t know what exists in there and we are still pending that result and when we get that information then we could determine more as to what is the precaution advisory we would have to issue. We advise people, any water that they would use, to treat it before any purpose for consumption or domestic wise and we advise people not to swim in the river. Increased water testing, knowing that we are having continuous sedimentation in the area, we know that we need to increase our testing to ensure that we are capturing whatever is happening in the area at all times. And this would be for the Macal River as well as the Belize River. We need to remember that it’s a tributary that leads from one point to the next when we have a number of our major water systems on that tributary as well as it’s serving a large population of the country.”
Bodden says that the Ministry will have continuous testing for iron in the Macal given the high levels. Testing for other heavy metals and pesticides will also take place. The Department of Environment says the cause of the silt and soil runoff may have come from deforestation and forest fires within reserves that pump water into the Macal basin. Belize Electric Company Limited (Becol) issued a release denying that it is pumping silt into the River. The company states that it has never flushed the reservoir and claims that the change in color of the Macal is a result of natural inflow from the surrounding area.
