Water, a precious resource we must protect
It’s been called the source of all life, but lately Mother Nature’s liquid assets has been coming under waves of serious threat. News 5’s Jacqueline Woods reports on what Belize is doing to make sure we don’t end up in hot water when it comes to this vital resource.
Martin Alegria, Senior Environmental Officer
“Belize for example ranks fourteen in the world in terms of how much water there is per person; we are fourteen. We are second in Central America in terms of supply of it, how much water reaches to each person in Belize; we are the second in Central America and the Caribbean. So in terms of those two statistics, it shows that Belize is in a very good position.”
Jacqueline Woods, Reporting
That is good news when you consider the United Nations is reporting that two billion people in the world are desperate for water. Here in Belize, the Department of Environment states that water resources are available to ninety-two percent of the population. Senior Environmental Officer, Martin Alegria, says although a lot has been done to make water available, much more can be done for people living in rural areas.
Martin Alegria
“Basically, it’s for infrastructure development to get this water that is available in the neighbourhood in the right conduits, in the right means to people needing it. For example, water systems. And again I would like to bring to the attention that in Belize we have done very a good job in terms of rural water supply through the rudimentary water systems that we have. We have up to now from what I heard lately, over a thousand wells dug around the country for the supply of water to villages and rural areas that are becoming more and more in need of it.”
One body of water D.O.E. has been studying is the New River in Orange Walk. Residents living along the river have raised concerns over water quality following reports of dead fish and a strong odour emanating from the water. A team of environmental officers visited the area, taking several samples from the river. According to Chief Environmental Officer, Ismael Fabro, they strongly suspect man is to blame for the problems.
Ismael Fabro, Chief Environmental Officer
“As you pass through Tower Hill, you begin coming down, you have two industries, you have it’s a distillery, Cuello’s distillery–it’s not putting blame on anybody–and then you go on B.S.I. It’s one of the largest industry that we have in Belize and extracts tremendous amount of water from the New River. It’s also one of the largest producers of wastewater effluent. So their water is being treated, but you still have load of discharges going into the river, we’re talking large loads. And as you continue travelling down the River to Orange Walk Town, you come across some drains that feed into the river and these drains would drain some farmland areas. As a matter of fact, as you travelled on the road you would have seen a new cotton farm. Cotton is a crop that requires a lot of input. But beside that you have the pastureland and other things where you have organics during rain run off that is being discharged through these drains into the river.”
D.O.E. says to address the problem they will need to introduce long term programmes that including soakaways and a decrease in discharges to the drains.
Today, water quality continued to be the topic at a fair held at the Macal River Park in San Ignacio. The activity, which was well attended by students from the Cayo District, was held to observe World Environment Day.
Martin Alegria
“We are planning for the next twenty years or so and the best way to start planning is to get to the children, the youth. Those are the two key people that we have to first convince, inform and convince and let them do the job, because in the next twenty years or so they will be where I am and even in a better position to do something about what we may have planned today.”
One plan is to introduce laws or policies to address proper water resource management in Belize.
Martin Alegria
“What we do have is bits and pieces of legislation around the country that is some way or the other touches water resource. For example, the Environmental Protection Act, under its pollution control responsibilities, has the avoidance of pollution of the water aspect, but not so much integratedly. Another example is the Hydrology Department under MET. The Hydrology Unit under MET also has the responsibility of measuring the water flows in our rivers and streams for data so that information could be generated to make decisions. But there is no mechanism to feed that into a policy or a law to then address water resources from a integrated perspective.”
Jacqueline Woods for News 5.
In January of this year, the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources re-established a Pro-tem Water Commission to specifically develop Belize’s policy and a law that will address the issue of Water Resource Management to maintain and improve the country’s position on global water resources.
