Multibillion-dollar Negril River pollution

Despite repeated warnings of the catastrophic consequences to the marine ecosystem, public health and the environment from effluent flowing into the Negril River from a sewage plant, there has been little effort to resolve the decades-long issue.

The problem dates back some 30 years after the National Water Commission (NWC) established a wastewater treatment plant at Sheffield in Westmoreland, on the outskirts of a popular fishing village, to support the rapid construction of hotels along the shoreline.

The pollution is a huge blow to Negril, which is renowned for its pristine beaches and vibrant marine life, with popular spots for seafood lovers along its world-famous seven-mile strip.

“This is possibly the worst disastrous environmental destruction in the history of the country, where an estimated 1.9 million litres of secondary treated sewage goes right into the Negril Harbour, causing an overgrowth of algae and smothering the reef,” Lenbert Williams, director of projects at the Negril Coral Reef Preservation Society (NCRPS), told The Sunday Gleaner last week.

“This is costing Negril an estimated $10 billion annually through the loss of fish stock, loss of our crab industry, and our dive experience is now a thing of the past,” he added.

NCRPS, which has been conducting water-quality analysis before the secondary treatment sewage facility was established, has linked the increased macroalgae in the South River to the increased sewage discharge.

The problem was brought to the attention of the NWC and the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) several years ago, but little has been done to rectify it.

NCRPS told The Sunday Gleaner that it has been collecting data in the Negril area since the early 1990s and voiced its objection to the design of the Negril sewerage system during its construction in 1998.

According to Williams, the Government ignored suggestions for the design of a comprehensive treatment system, choosing to settle with just diverting the sewage to the ponds.

Now the pollution has reached a critical phase, threatening public health and the environment.

The Sunday Gleaner reached out to both the NWC and NEPA with several questions about the matter, but up to press time, there was no response from either agency. Only NEPA acknowledged receipt of the queries.

In 2011, grave environmental degradation caused by the flow of untreated water into the river led to the announcement of a $278-million upgrade to the wastewater treatment plant, which was funded by the European Union and the NWC. But it appears that no work has been done since then, despite the growth boom taking place in Negril over the years.

‘A MATTER WE CANNOT IGNORE’

“This is something that we fear the worst about but hope for the best in actual reality,” businessman Richard Wallace, the immediate past president of the Negril Chamber of Commerce, told The Sunday Gleaner.

“I know NEPA was doing water testing in the bay and the river. I hope they are still doing it, but they have kept the results close to their chest.”

Added Wallace, “I do not know if [it’s] because ... they don’t want to state [the results] publicly, but this is a very delicate matter … something that we should not ignore and certainly cannot ignore.”

Negril Councillor Bertel Moore, who chairs the Westmoreland Municipal Corporation, said he was not aware that the problem was unresolved.

“I know some years ago we had the problem and it was taken care of, but I am not aware of anything recently,” he told The Sunday Gleaner last week.

Morland Wilson, the member of parliament for Westmoreland Western, said he has been receiving complaints and has called for new tests to be done to determine the current state of affairs.

‘UNFIT FOR HUMANS’

According to the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), mangroves can play an important role in treating wastewater by removing contaminants, “but when there are excessive nutrients, it can promote the rapid growth of algae and other aquatic plants”.

“This affects water quality, for example, by limiting the oxygen in the water available to organisms. As the water quality deteriorates, it becomes less suitable for supporting various organisms which can ultimately lead to habitat degradation,” JET’s CEO Dr Theresa Rodriques Moody told The Sunday Gleaner, while calling for the resumption of proper monitoring and enforcement of the sewage plant.

“The water can also become unfit for humans. If monitoring and enforcement is not done, our environment and public health will continue to suffer.”

The Negril fishing village has been a popular source for seafood lovers for many decades, but NCRPS believes this could soon be a thing of the past if immediate action is not taken by the relevant entities to stem the effluent flow into the river.

BIG CONCERN FOR FISHERFOLK

The threat to their livelihood, the environment and human health is the biggest concern for the fisherfolk in the village located metres away from the NWC sewage pond. They rely on the Negril River and the nearby sea to sustain their daily life.

When The Sunday Gleaner visited the village last week, the news team could see the substance flowing freely from the sewage pond into the murky waters of the Negril River half a mile upstream. There was also a foul smell coming from the valve connecting the pond. Another outlet was seen by the fishing village, which The Sunday Gleaner was told carries an obnoxious smell when the tide is high.

Several wooden structures lined the bay with a number of small boats docked.

A baby could be heard crying inside a wooden structure but soon quieted as a man stepped out in the morning sun with the child resting peacefully on his shoulders.

All eyes turned towards three boats approaching the location, gradually reducing their speed after an early morning trip to sea. The haul they brought in seemed sparse.

Some of the fishermen looked dejected, possibly disappointed that their toil did not produce more, but immediately turned their attention to washing their boats and equipment.

Some said they would be venturing back out to retrieve their nets cast in the deep waters, with the hope of a good catch.

Goodison, a veteran fisherman for over 40 years, told The Sunday Gleaner that some of the fishermen and their families reside in the informal village along the riverbank.

He said the fishermen have to use some form of protection when touching the water because of the unhealthy state of the river.

“This has been our livelihood for decades, some days are good, and some are bad. But we can’t afford for anything to affect our means of survival,” he said.

He explained that they usually only moored their boats at the village, but they set up residence there because they were losing up to 10 boat engines weekly to theft, which stopped after they implemented a system to watch over the tools and equipment.

Councillor Moore believes the growing informal settlement established by the seafarers along the shoreline is contributing to the pollution of the Negril River, as there is no system in place for waste disposal. The business community also shares this concern.

“It is difficult to monitor these settlements because most of our fishermen are migrants, but it is something that we must confront,” Moore said.

But the fishermen deny polluting the river, claiming they have access to toilet facilities close by.

NOT OPERATING AT THE REQUIRED STANDARD

The NCRPS said that 15 years ago, it proposed to build a tertiary treatment pond adjacent to the NWC facility using aquatic water hyacinth. The initiative was endorsed by former Custos Owen Sinclair, who contributed two acres of land, but NEPA did not throw its support being the initiative, Williams revealed.

The use of water hyacinth is considered an emerging technology to treat sewage and other wastewater. A study conducted in Nigeria found that the use of water hyacinth plants in domestic sewage ponds is a viable and cheap alternative method of domestic sewage treatment. According to the Research Journal of Environmental Sciences, it is a potent tool for the treatment of municipal waste.

The Westmoreland Health Services acknowledged that testing of the Negril River has been inconsistent since the COVID-19 pandemic because the lab at the Cornwall Regional Hospital in St James is out of commission. The department, however, noted that there are concerns about the sewage facility.

“The plant is not operating as it should be; it is not meeting all the standards,” Steve Morris, chief public health inspector for Westmoreland, told The Sunday Gleaner.

“The water ministry did some work on the facility, but it still was not meeting the standards, the plant is not satisfactory.”

At the same time, Morris said that testing from samples taken at the beach did not reveal any contaminants.

The public health inspector said he will now dispatch a team to investigate the issue further. He also said monitoring will be increased in the areas of concern and samples taken for testing, which will have to be done at the lab in Kingston.

mark.titus@gleanerjm.com