The Institute of Marine Affairs (IMA) and the Chaguaramas Development Authority (CDA) both intend to conduct fresh tests on three beaches along Chaguaramas, to determine how much of a health risk they pose to bathers.
Based on a study conducted by the IMA almost three years ago, the institute urged members of the public to avoid bathing in Williams Bay and Chagville beach during or after prolonged rainfall and to avoid bathing at Welcome Bay at anytime due to high levels of bacteria from sewerage present in the waters which increases the risk of contracting an ailment.
In a telephone interview on Monday, IMA Director Dr Ahmad Khan told Guardian Media that first up in their operations in deciding the course of action for these popular bathing spots would be a fresh test of the waters.
“The IMA is not able to just close a beach because we just don’t have enough information for this year to determine whether or not that is continuing and we gonna be doing that together with the CDA pretty soon,” Khan explained.
“The IMA and CDA, which are both parts of the Ministry of Planning and Development, within the next week or two are expected to sit down and plan out a more comprehensive bathing beach water quality monitoring programme for these beaches.”
The IMA director is hoping that they would be able to properly inform the public about the beaches ‘and “have the proper signage up by the end of September.”
But for this to happen, he said it “now comes down to the Ministry of Planning and Development making funding available to both the CDA and the IMA to get this programme started as soon as possible.”
Despite numerous attempts, chairman of the CDA Narine Gupte Lutchmedial is yet to provide Guardian Media with a comment on the matter.
Speaking at the sixth community research symposium titled The Sea and Me: Livelihood and Learning, last Wednesday, a microbiologist with the IMA Sheldon Ramoutar explained that the bacteria were introduced into the waters due to sewerage. He explained that the presence of these bacteria in the water did not guarantee that an individual exposed to it would get sick, however, he said it did increase the probability of contracting an illness, which could be mistaken for symptoms associated with food poisoning.
Ramoutar explained that young children were especially at risk of getting ill when bathing in these waters.
Some of the bacteria found in the waters at Chaguaramas are Escherichia coli (E. coli), enterococci, total coliform and faecal coliform. These were bacterial indicators used for their study and were analysed using a membrane filtration method in accordance with the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) protocol.
Apart from improper disposal of sewerage, these bacteria are introduced into the Chaguaramas waters from streams, currents, surface runoff due to rainfall and even due to rough seas which, when they batter the shoreline, can release the bacteria hidden within the soil and sand.