Ministry of Health Assessing Health of Residents along the New River

Edgar Ek

Over the past two months, the health of the New River deteriorated exponentially. Aside from visible changes in its physical aspect, a strong stench of rotting eggs, which is hydrogen sulphide, enveloped residents along the river bank. Personnel from D.O.E. and the Ministry of Health have been monitoring the situation closely. Today, we asked Deputy Chief Environmental Officer Edgar Ek if the living conditions of those along the river are being assessed and monitored. He responded saying that personnel of the Ministry of Health, who are part of the Task Force overseeing the measures taken to address the state of the New River, have been visiting with the residents.

Edgar Ek, Deputy Chief Environmental Officer

“The Ministry of Health had informed the task force, because they are members of the task force, that they were conducting a survey on the residents that live along the river. I’m not too sure what is the results, the final results but yes they had indicated that what people have been suffering from include headache, nausea, itching in the throat, stomach ache. I think those were the four basic things they were facing. We met with the principal of La Inmaculada School yesterday and she provided us with a report as well. Basically what students are suffering from are basically the same effects I had mentioned and in there we have a list. It appears that several students, including teachers have fallen ill but I cannot say that it’s H2S or not H2S at this point in time.”

Dalila Ical

“Is that being discussed by the task force in terms of providing these residents with some sort of testing, some sort of medical clinic or something where they can go an assess themselves and see if they are in any real danger, because you have people with weaker systems than others?”

Edgar Ek

“What the, like I said, the Ministry  of Health, what they are doing is to collect baseline information at this point in time and I think based on the results they will design a strategy and present it to the task force as to how we are going  to move forward in that respect.”

News Five understands that while residents have complained of feeling ill, there has not been any notable spike in persons seeking medical attention for the symptoms at the Northern Regional Hospital, or seeking medication from the pharmacies. Some persons, we are told have complained of experiencing itchy skin, nose and eyes. Others have experienced vomiting.