More probes and filters will be placed in rivers and reservoirs to prevent water contamination.
As well, Minister of the Environment and Water Resources Ganga Singh is looking into increasing the fines for polluting the water supply.
Singh made the announcement yesterday during a media tour of the Caroni Water Treatment Plant.
“There are probes in the river that will tell you the quality of water that will show the pollutants in the system. Now we have to carry those probes farther up the river in order to get an early warning system. There is a water system in place, but now we have to take it farther up system to ensure that the warning takes place in a more timely manner. The probes are in (the reservoirs) and will be put farther up Carapo,” Singh said.
On Wednesday, residents in the Caroni area were discomforted by contaminated water that smelled like kerosene. This contaminant was later discovered to be diesel. The Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), the Environmental Management Authority (EMA) and the ministry all sought to find out the cause of the contamination.
Singh said he did not know if the probe malfunctioned when the contaminant was passing through the reservoirs.
“I don’t know if the probe malfunctioned on that occasion. The fact of the matter was that it was physically seen when it entered the system and as a result it gave rise to a shutdown, so the whole probe process will be reviewed and the parameters of the probe will be dealt with,” he said
There are various forms of water filtration in the reservoir. Singh said the reservoir had two booms in place to stop waste from entering the plant. It was observed that the first boom collected thousands of empty bottles and other trash that were floating in the river.
A worker in the plant said the booms were immediately put into the reservoir when the contamination occurred. Singh said the boom was used to prevent any hydrocarbon, like diesel, from entering the plant.
“In the event of any kind of hydrocarbon contamination, those booms will keep it out,” Singh said.
When asked why the plant did not filter out the diesel contaminant, Singh said the plant used a sand filter which typically removed most pollutants, but it could not remove hydrocarbon-based contaminants.
(See Page A7)