ScoutsTT partners with WASA to tackle river pollution

By Lara Pickford-Gordon

snrwriter.camsel@catholictt.org

The Scout Association of Trinidad and Tobago is partnering for two years with the Adopt a River Programme to tackle pollution of water courses.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on Friday, January 12 at the headquarters of the Scout Association, St Ann’s by Avernell Wilson, Secretariat Adopt a River Programme under the Water Resources Agency of the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA), and National Scout Commissioner Mark Ainsely John. The document was already signed by WASA’s acting CEO Kelvin Romain.

Outreach Officer, Adopt a River Programme, Audra Smith said the pollution in T&T’s rivers was “startling and increasing” and many rivers, the “main source” of water for the country, were highly polluted.

“The worst that we have seen ranges from discarded pets, a strange effluence to different coloured liquids being released into the environment.” The level of pollution is affected by activities in the watershed such as quarrying and farming.

Smith said, “sometimes you find bags full of guts and waste from different farming activities. People also discard even from the crop aspect, coconut husk, things they are unable to get to a landfill or to the dump.” Discarded appliances and tyres have been removed from watercourses.

Cleaner watercourses mean that collection and treatment of water are easier for WASA and therefore can increase availability. Smith added, “pollution is not the only issue with water, there are other factors like climate change and other extenuating factors.”

Under the MoU, Scout members will receive training in watercourse management and afterwards train others in their communities. Smith said the scouts will conduct community outreach and education, clean-ups, recycling activities and tree planting.

The Scouts have identified rivers and streams they are close to or other watercourses they are interested in cleaning. These would include places they have visited regularly for activities.

Smith said companies, schools, non-governmental organisations, and individual volunteers can adopt a river. “Adoption [of a river] can range between a year to two years; it depends on what specific activity a group decides or is able to do during their adoption.”

She explained participants deal with about 100 feet of a particular river since many private entities did not have the resources to conduct activities for an entire river.

Smith said for ScoutsTT, the country was divided into north, south, east, west and Tobago. She said young men giving their time and resources to clean-up the environment and the positive impacts of their activity was a great day for both WASA and the Scouts Association.

John said the MoU “not only encourages young people to go out into their communities to do environmental work, it also has the far-reaching consequence of developing better relations between the environment and our young people as well as their families.” There are approximately 5,000 scout members.

Scouts have participated in the Adopt a River Programme before for rivers in south and east Trinidad. Caura river was cleaned before Christmas. “Our scouts were active even before signing the MoU in terms of doing those kinds of things,” John said. Scouts in Tobago learned fish farming through the programme and have a fish farm.

There are 69 watersheds—54 in Trinidad and 15 in Tobago. “A watershed describes an area of land that contains a common set of streams and rivers that all drain into a single, larger body of water, such as a larger river, lake, sea or an ocean.”

Watersheds are a source of water collection and sites of industry, agriculture, and recreation.

Smith said: “Each watershed has several rivers—one of the most popular is Caroni. That river runs through several towns and villages and cities and the activities that take place there will affect the water quality in each of those areas so that is why it is important we do not separate our day-to-day activities and even our choices as consumers and how it relates to water. It all impacts our water.”

One of the goals John would like to see achieved is a reduction in mircroplastics which end up in the Gulf of Paria and consequently in seafood. “We are a big fish-eating population so that is a cause of concern and something we want to work towards getting out of the watercourses in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.

ScoutsTT have developed the Hydro Shield badge for Scouts aged seven to young adults involved in the Adopt a River Programme to show they are “watercourse champions”. For more info: https://www.facebook.com/adoptarivertt/