Letter of the Day | Rio Cobre community concerns validated

THE EDITOR, Madam:

The Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) is finally in receipt of the water-quality results from a pollution incident that occurred in the Rio Cobre in May 2023. On October 20, the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) released a document entitled “Report on investigation conducted on the Zephryton region of the Rio Cobre River in St Catherine” following JET’s October 13 filing of an appeal under the Access to Information Act as the information requested had not been provided in accordance with the law.

JET’s original ATI request for the water-quality results was made on May 25, 2023, following community complaints. Access was denied by NEPA in August on the grounds that the documents requested were exempt pursuant to Section 16(b) of the ATI Act, which led to our appeal.

The NEPA report confirms the following:

• NEPA responded to a pollution report made on May 13 and conducted a site reconnaissance, interviews, and a physical and visual assessment of the river.

• NEPA issued a press release on May 14 confirming an upwelling of underground water in the vicinity of Zephyrton which stated, ‘… the report on the pollution incident is not credible as no physical evidence of pollutants was found there …’. This release also stated that the upwelling had been occurring for upwards of six months.

• Following further field assessments by NEPA and the Water Resources Authority (WRA) in May 2023 and once in September 2023, water-quality testing revealed elevated readings for several parameters, including total dissolved solids, pH, sodium, biochemical oxygen demand, chloride, conductivity, and sulphate. These results are consistent with water affected by chemical pollution from an industrial source and suggest that the possible source is from the bauxite/alumina facilities located upstream Zephyrton, confirming community reports.

We request that NEPA issue a new press release advising of these findings and apologising to the community for dismissing their reports.

We are concerned that it took NEPA five months to conduct their investigation and that the next steps have no timelines.

We agree that a robust water quality monitoring programme is needed for the Rio Cobre. In fact, given the frequency of pollution events in this major river, it is long overdue. This was also stated in our report on the water quality monitoring programme of the Rio Cobre (2011-2021) published in June 2023. When will this monitoring programme be implemented, and what measures will be put in place in the interim?

If the regulatory authorities do not take a more proactive and robust approach to environmental monitoring, pollution incidents will continue with inadequate consequences for polluters.

JAMAICA ENVIRONMENT TRUST