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A group of American scientists are in Belize to conduct a detailed assessment on the pollution in the New River. 

As has been widely reported, the river, which runs from the eastern edge of the Orange Walk District all the way to the Corozal Bay, is in the worst condition in memory.  It caught national attention as early as August after its drought aggravated the pollution.

So, the department of the environment and the worried residents who live near it are doing all they can to start reversing the pollution. That is expected to take years, but there is a need for a clear scientific picture to be captured of the New River so that informed decisions can be taken about remedial measures.

That’s where a group of water experts from the University of Florida comes in. They’ve been in Belize for several days now, and they’ve spent most of their time collecting samples of the water and its sediments, which they will take back with them for testing in a lab. 

They agreed this afternoon to sit down with the local media to discuss how their efforts to study the New River. Our colleagues from CTV 3 News attended, and here are a few excerpts from that frank conversation:

Dr. Vencia Briggs-Gonzalez - Team Leader, University of Florida
"We were invited by the Department of Environment to work alongside with the government to help get at the issues of what's happening in the New River. So we're here to collect the data and the data to do a comprehensive water quality assessment. Basically from top to bottom throughout the river, so that's what we're here to do."

Dr. Dail Laughinghouse - Professor, University of Florida
"We're sampling 10 hour days going up and down, about 30 sites so far, from the lagoon all the way to the bay."

Reporter
"So it's water and sediment samples?"

Dr. Dail Laughinghouse
"We do have both samples yes, correct. We're doing nitrites, nitrates, ammonia, total phosphorus, orthophosphate and then community structures as well and metals."

Dr. Vencia Briggs-Gonzalez
"We've observed the river has a lot different uses along the distance. There's definitely discharge along pretty much the entirety of the river, multiple uses and in areas closer to the lagoon, the water is really nice, really clean, we went swimming in the lagoon."

Reporter
"When you say really nice, really clean and we are talking about oxygen in the area. Did you tested the area by the lagoon for oxygen?"

Dr. Dail Laughinghouse
"Yes we did, it around 90 something percent oxygen in the water. 92-93 I think it was, all the way down to 10 meters more or less because we were looking at surface 1 meter, 3 meters, as long as you can go down because some parts of the river is not 3 meters or 5 meters right. So we did that and dissolved oxygen was one of the parameters we did because you can do that monitoring, so there are certain things you do in the lab and there are certain things you can do out in the field and one thing is testing dissolved oxygen."

Reporter
"So when does it start to change? The oxygen level."

Dr. Vencia Briggs-Gonzalez
"That's throughout the river; I think we've seen very low levels throughout the river. There are a few things straight off the bat, don't go in the water, don't drink the water, don't swim in the water, don't play in the water, your dogs don't drink the water; you don't eat the fish because we don't know enough. We're collecting the data right now and everything we do along the river, everyone's wearing gloves. So if we're doing that, you don't want your children to go in there, it's definitely not that but the first thing along the way is that everything that goes in the water right now, that has to stop and as residence of the community, it's everyone's responsibility to sort of take ownership. I can't put things in the water, whatever it is, as you start to think about how you run your household, how your business in run, different things like that, things just can't go in the water. The river provides an environmental service and we have to give it an opportunity to do that but if we're constantly putting into it, we're not giving it the opportunity to do that."

Reporter
"Do you think one day it can be fixed? And if it can, what is necessary to do?"

Dr. Dail Laughinghouse
"We always have to have hope right, if we don't have hope for anything but I've seen working in Brazil, so I've been working with algae, water quality for about 15 years and when I started out, you know in Brazil we have a lot of water issues as well and all around the world. In the United States we have huge issues with water, algal bloom, water quality, depends. So yes, there are remediation methods, I guess stop putting pollution into the water."

Dr. Vencia Briggs-Gonzalez
"The first thing, stop discharging into the New River, first and foremost, that's across the board. That is every single thing that goes into the water. You eat a piece of food, you eat your tamales and you throw that in there, where are you throwing it, into the New River? It's about retraining how we do things, how we think about our pride, we need to have civic pride and that is everything from how you run your household, children at school, you eat your candy and you throw your paper on the ground or you're drinking something and you throw the rest of it into the river. It might seem like much but when it’s however many thousands of people, that has accumulative effect. So the first thing is discharge and it's not just our people, it's obviously our industry and it is our urban landscape, it's everything along the river. Somethings are obvious, somethings require a little further analysis but that's the first thing. Stop discharging into the New River, allow it the opportunity to breathe, it's not able to breathe right now, that's what happening."

These water experts are also recommending that there be a diligent observance of a buffer zone between the New River and all human, and industrial activity. As you heard Dr. Briggs said, the river needs time to repair itself. To reverse its sickly state, they are recommending that the community treat it like they would the rain forest, and work hard to stop all effluent discharge into the river.

They say that they will have to carry the samples back with them for testing before they can create a snapshot of the chemicals that were in the River, at the time when they were collected.