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Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Visitors left disappointed, red river back to normal

by

Radhica De Silva
2228 days ago
20190714

The blood-red riv­er near the Dig­i­ty Mud vol­cano is no longer crim­son but has re­turned to its murky-brown colour.

Scores of peo­ple who went to the riv­er to see the strange phe­nom­e­non left dis­ap­point­ed. Among them was Sama Carue of Tu­na­puna.

“We left home ear­ly this morn­ing to get here be­cause we heard the riv­er was red but when we came it was nor­mal. We are dis­ap­point­ed yes but we will still make a lime here be­fore go­ing home,” Carue said.

Care­tak­er of the Dig­i­ty Mud vol­cano site Rakesh Ram­per­sad said it was not the first time that the Oropouche Riv­er run­ning near the vol­cano turned red.

He said in 2018, around the same time of the year, the wa­ter be­gan get­ting a red­dish hue.

“Last year the riv­er was red­dish but this time the en­tire strip of the riv­er was blood red. I have no idea what caused it to run out,” Ram­per­sad re­called.

Fol­low­ing heavy rains in the area on Sat­ur­day night, Ram­per­sad said the riv­er re­turned to its nor­mal colour.

“When we came here this morn­ing it was slight­ly red. I doubt it is bac­te­ria. I feel it is pol­lu­tion,” Ram­per­sad added.

The En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Au­thor­i­ty’s emer­gency re­sponse in­ves­tiga­tive of­fi­cer Anil Ban­doo, as well as EMA’s dri­ver Ren­nie Lutch­man, vis­it­ed the area yes­ter­day. Ban­doo said they will track the body of wa­ter to see if the red­dish residue was still ev­i­dent.

The red­dish riv­er was first high­light­ed by the In­tel­lec­tu­al on Face­book.

Dur­ing an in­ter­view on Sat­ur­day, chair­man of the Pe­nal/Debe Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Dr Allen Sam­my said the riv­er is heav­i­ly pol­lut­ed.

“Peo­ple throw all kinds of rub­bish in the riv­er. Some peo­ple al­so use the riv­er for agri­cul­tur­al pur­pos­es.”

He said dis­as­ter man­age­ment teams from the cor­po­ra­tion were in­ves­ti­gat­ing the source of the pol­lu­tant.

Man­ag­ing di­rec­tor of the EMA Hay­den Ro­mano said if there is proven ev­i­dence that some­one was de­lib­er­ate­ly pol­lut­ing the riv­er, they could face charges.

What the law says

Un­der the En­vi­ron­men­tal Man­age­ment Act Chap 35:05 Sec­tion 70:

1. “Any­one through the re­lease or han­dling of any pol­lu­tant or haz­ardous sub­stance know­ing­ly or reck­less­ly en­dan­gers hu­man life or health, com­mits an of­fence, and is li­able on con­vic­tion on in­dict­ment, to a fine of one hun­dred thou­sand dol­lars and im­pris­on­ment for two years.

2. Any per­son who know­ing­ly or reck­less­ly un­der­takes or con­spires to al­low any ac­tiv­i­ty in an “en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly sen­si­tive area” or with re­spect to an “en­vi­ron­men­tal­ly sen­si­tive species” des­ig­nat­ed un­der sec­tion 41, which may have an ad­verse im­pact on the en­vi­ron­ment with­in such area or on such species, com­mits an of­fence and is li­able, on con­vic­tion on in­dict­ment, to a fine of one hun­dred thou­sand dol­lars and im­pris­on­ment for two years.


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