RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

The En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty (EMA) is sound­ing the alarm over a grow­ing en­vi­ron­men­tal cri­sis in T&T: the in­dis­crim­i­nate dump­ing of haz­ardous ma­te­ri­als in the na­tion's lands and wa­ter­cours­es. 

Re­ports have sur­faced of un­marked tanker wag­ons il­le­gal­ly dis­pos­ing of haz­ardous waste in­to rivers and open land spaces, of­ten in re­mote ar­eas. The EMA says these reck­less acts are threat­en­ing not on­ly the en­vi­ron­ment but al­so pub­lic health and safe­ty.

Say­ing this il­le­gal dump­ing con­tributes to a host of se­vere en­vi­ron­men­tal is­sues, in­clud­ing clogged drainage sys­tems, the EMA ex­plains that this height­ens the risk of flood­ing and the con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of vi­tal wa­ter sources. 

The con­se­quences are far-reach­ing, af­fect­ing aquat­ic life, de­grad­ing soil qual­i­ty, and con­tribut­ing to air pol­lu­tion, the Au­thor­i­ty added.

A few months ago, oil residue had been dumped in the Ca­roni Swamp.

The EMA says the ecosys­tem ser­vices that com­mu­ni­ties de­pend on are be­ing un­der­mined, and the spread of dis­eases be­comes more like­ly.

Say­ing it is tak­ing a hard stance on this is­sue, the EMA warned that il­le­gal dump­ing is a crim­i­nal of­fence pun­ish­able by law. 

Un­der the Lit­ter Act of 1973, in­di­vid­u­als caught dump­ing face fines of up to $4,000 or six months of im­pris­on­ment, while cor­po­ra­tions can be fined up to $8,000. 

The EMA said it is col­lab­o­rat­ing with oth­er gov­ern­ment agen­cies and has com­mit­ted to a ze­ro-tol­er­ance ap­proach, with pa­trols in sus­pect­ed ar­eas to ap­pre­hend those re­spon­si­ble.

The Au­thor­i­ty says while en­force­ment is im­por­tant it is call­ing on the pub­lic to be the first line of de­fence in pro­tect­ing the en­vi­ron­ment. Cit­i­zens are now be­ing urged to re­port any in­stances of il­le­gal dump­ing, pro­vid­ing pho­to­graph­ic or video­graph­ic ev­i­dence that clear­ly iden­ti­fies the ve­hi­cles in­volved. 

The Au­thor­i­ty is al­so is­su­ing an ad­vi­so­ry to mem­bers of the pub­lic who have been dump­ing.

"In­dis­crim­i­nate dump­ing is detri­men­tal to our plan­et and liveli­hoods; we are urg­ing you to make the right choice and prac­tice prop­er dis­pos­al of waste. If you are un­sure of how to prop­er­ly dis­pose of waste ma­te­r­i­al that you may have in your pos­ses­sion, con­tact the EMA."

The EMA is al­so urg­ing every cit­i­zen to stay vig­i­lant, re­port il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ties, and ad­here to prop­er waste dis­pos­al prac­tices. 

Over the past year, re­ports have sur­faced of oil residue be­ing dumped in the Ca­roni Riv­er, waste­water be­ing dumped in the Diego Mar­tin Riv­er as well as dump­ing in Bam­boo Num­ber 2, Pe­nal Rock Road as well as Kan­hai Trace, Bar­rack­pore.

Any­one want­i­ng to make a com­plaint about in­dis­crim­i­nate dump­ing can call the EMA’s Hot­line at 367-8824 or via email at com­plaints@ema.co.tt. The EMA as­sures the pub­lic that all in­for­ma­tion will be treat­ed with the ut­most con­fi­den­tial­i­ty.