by Miranda La Rose
Stabroek News
June 10, 2001

The pollution of the Demerara River at Linden as a consequence of the indiscriminate dumping of garbage has caused concern among residents after the problem was publicised in a television documentary made by the Regional Democratic Council (RDC) of Region Ten.

The RDC which is headquartered at Linden, is to coordinate efforts to clean up the polluted river, an exercise which is expected to start next week.

Residents in Linden and its environs use the river water to supply their domestic needs.

Regional Executive Officer Basil Benn, who did the commentary for the documentary which highlighted the issue of the pollution, and which was aired in Linden last week, told Stabroek News that the RDC was willing to work with the Linden Town Council (LTC) in addressing the problem.

This newspaper was made aware of the situation when a citizen from Linden who had watched the documentary entitled `The Future of the River Water and You' said he was now afraid to use the water because of the graphic footage he had seen.

When contacted, Benn said that the RDC had been forced to act immediately after Regional Chairman Mortimer Mingo had brought the matter of the contaminated river water to his attention. Mingo, he said, had felt that there was need to involve everyone in the effort through a public awareness programme in order to change habits. "He thought that we need to collaborate with the LTC to deal with it," he said.

Benn was assisted in putting together the documentary by a panel which included the Regional Health Officer Dr Pansy Armstrong, Medex Hazel Chichester and the Assistant Regional Executive Officer Carl Parker.

The technical team focused on the danger of cholera and other water-borne diseases spreading rapidly in the event of a single outbreak, because the river was the source of the water supply to most of the town.

The water is pumped from the river into four systems which in turn distribute it to Wismar, Mackenzie, East Watooka and West Watooka.

The main problem is the dumping of market refuse by stall holders of the Mackenzie Market and those located on Burnham Drive in Wismar. Both the Mackenzie Market and Burnham Drive run parallel to the river which divides the two.

According to Benn, stall holders dump their garbage at the side of the river and when the tide is high the refuse is carried either up or down river. The garbage includes plastic bags and bottles, styrofoam, baby pampers, sanitary napkins, remains of food, and rotting fruit and vegetables, among other things. Even bits of garden vegetation are thrown in the river as well.

In addition people living along the banks of the Demerara have toilets and urinals sited over the river. The footage also showed persons washing and children bathing in the river with garbage floating around them. It also showed one of the water treatment plants surrounded by garbage, but which nevertheless was pumping water into the system.

Benn noted that while the water was supposed to go through a purification process, it went largely untreated because of a lack of reagents. Many times the water coming through the pipes was brown and filled with sediment, he said.

One resident who saw the documentary told Stabroek News that he always boiled the water before he drank it but that he was so scared when he saw the footage that he began to put disinfectant in the water to bathe and to "disinfect everything." In fact he described it as, "crazily scary - that is how bad it looks on television."

Benn said that the RDC needed to let people know the problem caused by indiscriminate dumping and from the response from the people, he said it had had "some effect and people are disturbed."

Stall holders, he said had been among the first to form a committee on Friday indicating their willingness to work with the RDC and Linden Town Council which was responsible for solid waste management in the town, in coming up with plans to clean the river.

Benn noted that while the regional administration was interested in cleaning the town's water supply source and had invited the Linden Town Council (LTC) to discuss the issue which was of "grave concern" to residents, the RDC had not yet had a response from the LTC. However, he said, "we are still trying to continue the effort so that there is some collaboration among us to have this issue dealt with."

He said that the LTC needs to identify a regular dump site/landfill site as it also "dumps garbage indiscriminately as well." He expressed the hope that the RDC could work with the LTC not only for Environmental Week which was observed over the past week but until the problems were solved.

Stabroek News on Friday made several attempts to contact Linden Mayor Stanley Smith, but to no avail.