1 week ago
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For residents and visitors using the Embarcadero area in San Pedro, the recent king tides have brought an unwelcome problem. As the tides rise, water is affecting the area around the Belize Water Services pump station, and residents say dark wastewater has been coming up through nearby manholes. The Embarcadero is a busy area, used by residents, students, and local artisans, and there are concerns about the odour and the possible impact the situation could have on the surroundings. BWS Water and Wastewater Manager, for the cayes and the west, Eric Rhaburn told Love News that this was not an output from BWS.
Eric Rhaburn, Water and Waste Management, BWS: “All right, so what happened Friday night is that we had a high tide, right? The manhole that’s connected near Station 3 on Nurse Shark Street was submerged. So we had a hydraulic overload, right? It had nothing to do with the pump station. It’s simply a high tide. And to verify that we had the DOE personnel that went out there in Saturday morning and he commented that there were no solids. There was no odor associated with a sewage charge. So it was simply put it was a high tide the system became overwhelmed. And whenever it receded back, if you go right now, it has receded and it’s not overflowing anymore. So one of our mitigation that we did is that we got the septic trucks to come and pump down the manholes, right? And we have them on, you know, on watch for us, and the other thing that we’re going to do which is going to be a more longer term solution is to try and raise the manhole so that this doesn’t happen again whenever we get a high tide.”
Rhaburn explained that the king tides are creating challenges for the operation of the pump station and that BWS is monitoring the situation. The matter has also been brought to the attention of the Department of the Environment, which has been asked to assess the situation and determine whether there are any environmental concerns. BWS says its teams continue to monitor the system and are looking at measures to manage the impact of the high tides on wastewater operations.
Eric Rhaburn, Water and Waste Management, BWS: “DOE didn’t really conduct a test per se, right? What we did was we took a look. They were looking for solids, you know, like I said that’s associated with us to what discharge. We didn’t have any fault orders, right? And one of the other mitigation that we did is that we disinfected the area also. So that just in case anything happened we disinfected so that we can protect the area. The area is safe. It was hydraulic overloading. It was simple saltwater coming through our manholes.”
For those who use the Embarcadero every day, the hope is that a solution can be found soon, as the area remains an important part of the San Pedro community
English (US) ·