If you love swimming, fishing, or some other water sport, you probably have a favorite body of water you remember fondly as a child. If your favorite spot is a river near your neighborhood, then you'll definitely be able to identify with our story featuring a group of residents from Orange Walk Town.

They say that the New River is not the same pristine natural beauty that it once was about 20 or 25 years ago. They say that in recent years, the water appears to have become polluted, and they don't exactly know what is causing it.

And more than lack of recreational opportunities, if the New River is polluted, it raises serious public health concerns for those residents who live near it.

This morning, a group of Sugar City locals took the media on a boat ride to different parts of the river most negatively affected. They are trying to bring public pressure on the Department of Environment to investigate what is happening.

7News went on the trip, and Daniel Ortiz reports:

This is the New River, a few miles from Orange Walk Town itself. What you're seeing is the colour and texture that residents of Orange Walk have come to know it, when it is at its cleanest.

As you get closer to the town, the river's consistency starts to change, from that light grayish-green hue to a more milky green colour.

Closer to the town, the river's water also loses its natural translucency, and it gets murky, as if the water is getting more muddy and turbid.

Giovanni De La Fuente - Concerned Resident
"We went upstream for a couple miles where we clearly noticed that the colour of the river changed and then we started coming back down stream and we encountered this milky green situation."

Now, to a non-scientist who has no prior knowledge of how the river normally looks, that person would see these contrasts, and not be alarmed.

For several experienced residents of Orange Walk, though, the negative changes in the consistency of the waters of the New River are cause for great concern.

Errol Cadle - Tour Guide, Lamanai Eco Tours
"I've been travelling this river since 1981, I was 13 years old travelling the river for years, in and out around the month like March, April, May. We noticed discoloration in the water, the stench in the water and fish start floating around in the area. Because this year we are having a drought in the country of Belize we notice it's a lot worse than we have seen in many years. For at least 3 months now the river has been really bad. I've travelled up and down this river, I like to do fishing a lot in this area. You won't see the tarpons rolling anymore, you don't even see the crocodiles in this area, it's really bad."

The discoloration and the lack of wildlife that use to make these parts of the river their habitat leads these concerned residents to believe that its contamination levels are high.

Ian Cal - Deputy Mayor, Orange Walk Town
"We have never seen the river the way it is this year. It started to happen about 2 months ago where we started to see the colour of the river changing then milky substance floating on top of the river and then it comes along with the stench. We have gotten the concern because as you know, as local government, everybody comes to the town council to ask questions or try to find out what is being done about the entire issue. So we have been getting those concerns, especially about the stench of the river and the wildlife that lives around the river. If you notice on the boat ride and two weeks about it was much worse. Anything that this water touches, even the water lilies, the fish are dying, the plants are dying. So it's something that is in this river that is killing the wildlife and even the flora and fauna. So we have to find out exactly where this is coming from and what is causing it. Like I said it happens every year but this year it is much worse."

There is a lot of speculation that this is actually pollution of the water, and there are even fingers being pointed at certain corporate entities that call Orange Walk their home.

These residents say that they simply want answers, and they wanted them from the Department of Environment, who should be monitoring the quality of these important waterways.

Giovanni De La Fuente
"A lot of people are casting aspersion and blame and they say oh it's this one, oh it's that one. I am not here to cast blame on anyone other than the Department of Environment. I am here to represent the thousands of people citizens living in Orange Walk Town and Corozal Town and the 10 settlements along the way. I am here to represent the thousands of people that are using this very same river to access water. In this time and age, can you imagine an entire population of a town receiving water from this situation? Our pumps in Orange Walk Town are very close to the river."

Errol Cadle
"I'd like the Department of the Environment to do their job, to come in and seek out the culprits because that's their job, they should be doing it. They should be thinking about a healthy river for the people of Orange Walk. You have to realize we do get water for our pumps and faucets to bathe from this area and we haven't been hearing anything coming from the government. You come here on Sundays you will notice there is many different place alongside the banks of the river, I own a little sports bar, Bat's Landing and there's Maracas, there are many other places alongside the banks of the river where people want to come and recreate on Sunday. Many kids, as a kid I use to come and swim in this river for many years, today you are afraid of just touching the water."

Giovanni De La Fuente
"They need to address this situation and address the people of Orange Walk Town so that we can know what's going on. Is the water safe? Should we consume the fish? Once we have done that then I believe other pressure groups should step up and light a big fire under the department's seat so that the department could identify who is the culprit, if there is a culprit because there is always the possibility that it's a natural cause right."

As noted in our story, there is a group of companies that these concerned residents want the DOE to investigate as possible offenders, whose wastewater could be leaking into the New River. 

We reached out to one of those companies for comment, and via email, that company told us that it, quote, "places great value on being an environmentally-conscious and responsible corporate citizen." End quote.

The company's statement continues, quote, "Through our partnership with the Department of the Environment (DOE), we continue to monitor the river, through internal and external mechanisms regularly, as is required under our Environmental Compliance Plan (ECP)." End quote.

Reliable sources tell us that if there is contamination of the water, one source could be the town's own wastewater seeping into the river. We are told that Orange Walk does not have a sewage system that could completely insulate against that.

We intend to seek the DOE out for comment on the state of this river.