Richard Morais, Gleaner Writer
FALMOUTH, Trelawny:
AS WATER continues to spring up in many rural parishes since the active hurricane season, last year, Charles McKenzie, Trelawny parish manager of the National Environmental and Planning Agency (NEPA), has blamed the indiscriminate disposal of plastic bags and is calling for a ban or restricted use.
According to McKenzie, the aquifers are full and there has to be an outlet, but the sinkholes where the water would normally escape to the sea are blocked by an accumulation of plastic bags that got into the water system because care is not taken to dispose of them properly. The plastic bags, which are not degradable, are a threat to the natural flow of water.
He said that, with the blocked outlets, the water in the aquifers have to find an outlet and this happens at the most permeable areas, hence the development of springs.
He is therefore calling on the authorities to ban or restrict the use of these non-degradable plastic bags. The call comes against the background of a new spring that has developed in the Salt Marsh area of Trelawny, recently.
In a brief interview with The Gleaner yesterday, Basil Fernandez, head of the Water Resources Authority, while intimating at the possibility of plastic bags clogging sinkholes, said he had no evidence to support Mr. McKenzie's claim.
