In the popular imagination, the Caribbean is paradise, an exotic place to escape to. But Behind the images of paradisiacal beaches and exuberant hotels hides a crisis like never before that its inhabitants have experienced and are experiencing.
(Also: Chile will join South Africa’s complaint against Israel at the International Court in The Hague).
For example, Trinidad is experiencing the worst drought in recent times. Island residents will be subject to restrictions until at least the end of June 2024, with fines for anyone who breaks the rules.
Dominica, considered the natural island of the Caribbean for its mountain rainforests, is experiencing a significant decline in its freshwater resources. In Grenada, known as the spice island, The drought has affected water systems throughout the island. Jamaica is also facing restrictions and has had to resort to water cuts in recent years, limiting water availability to a few hours a day in some areas.
Saint Vincent and Saint Kitts have been forced to ration water in recent years, as has Barbados. The panorama is generalized and recent data show that The Caribbean is one of the most water-stressed regions in the world.
Drinking water is essential for all human activity and public health. That is why it is important to understand the root causes of water crises and find effective and affordable ways to improve water supply systems.
(Of interest: Renowned ‘youtuber’ was found dead after content related to pedophilia was found on him).
The reasons behind
The Caribbean is one of the most urbanized regions in the world. Around three quarters of its population lives in cities and that percentage is increasing, which adds pressure to public water supply systems.
At the same time, increased industrialization and commercialization of agriculture have degraded water quality and, in some cases, They have invaded sensitive catchment areas, affecting the soil’s ability to retain the liquid.
This competitive demand for limited freshwater has reduced stream flows and caused the extraction of water from sensitive sources. In Dennery North, a major agricultural community in Saint Lucia, water shortages have forced residents to collect water from rivers and other sources for their homes and farms.
(In other topics: Cuba responds to the United States for the new measures that exist to support its businessmen).
Unregulated groundwater extraction can also exacerbate the problem. Many islands depend on groundwater, including Barbados, where 90 percent of the supply comes from groundwater, and Jamaica (84 percent).
However, increased demand and changes in annual rainfall patterns are affecting the recharge capacity of aquifers or groundwater. As a result, supply is not keeping up with demand. This poses a big problem for the island of Utila, located off the coast of Honduras, where the current aquifer recharge rate is only 2.5 percent per year. In comparison, Barbados has a recharge rate of 15 percent to 30 percent of annual rainfall.
On the other hand, it is no secret that the Caribbean is a very popular tourist destination, and Tourist economies consume large amounts of water.
Even during water rationing, This is first diverted to hotels and other places dependent on tourism. That can leave local residents without water for hours or days and face fines if they violate usage restrictions.
Tourism not only increases water consumption but also the contamination of water resources. Building golf courses to attract more tourists further increases water demand from tourism and runoff.
Another problem faced by water supply systems is a poor governance leading to excessive loss of treated water before it even reaches the customer.
A well-functioning water utility will typically have water losses, known as non-revenue water, below 30 percent. In the Caribbean, The average non-revenue water is 46 percent, and in some cases it reaches 75 percent. The reasons range from a lack of proper management practices to measurement inaccuracies, leaks and theft.
The situation of these water systems can be made even worse by extreme weather conditions, such as hurricanes and floods, and can damage infrastructure, causing long outages and costly repairs.
(We recommend: The British ambassador to Mexico would have been removed from his position for pointing a rifle inside a vehicle).
The Caribbean is the second most disaster-prone region in the world. The islands face frequent earthquakes, landslides, devastating hurricanes and other destructive storms. As global temperatures and sea levels rise, the risk of extreme weather events increases and from storm surges that cause erosion, flooding and saltwater pollution.
In 2017 and three months after Hurricane Maria, which affected Dominica, the United States Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, more than 14 percent of the Caribbean population was still without drinking water.
Rain water
There are also ways to increase supply. One of them consists of strategically planning a practice that the Caribbean region has relied on for centuries: rainwater harvesting, which consists of capturing it from roofs and storing it for future use. It can be used for irrigation or treated for domestic uses.
Currently, rainwater harvesting is not managed as part of the centralized water management system on the islands. Instead, Households bear the cost of financing, building and maintaining their own systems. Finding technical support can be difficult, leaving households to contend with seasonal variations in quantity and quality. This means that risks to drinking water safety are difficult to identify.
If stormwater harvesting were combined with central systems in a hybrid water management model, it could contribute to expanding safe stormwater harvesting and solving the region’s water problems.
It’s a relatively new concept, and integrating decentralized sources can be complexincluding requiring separate pipes, but has potential to reduce water stress.
Decentralized sources, such as rainwater harvesting, groundwater or recycled gray water, could serve as reserve sources in case of shortage or provide water for non-potable usessuch as toilet cisterns or irrigation.
In Australia, engineers are considering the potential of hybrid water systems to help meet the challenges of providing safe and sustainable water in the future.
(Also: New case of school violence: eighth grade student attacked another classmate with scissors).
The World Health Organization has declared that access to a sufficient, safe and reliable supply is a fundamental human right and that, to achieve this, water suppliers have a responsibility to provide adequate quantities of safe drinking water.
Hybrid systems could help ensure water security for island communities and improve systems resilience amid the human and environmental pressures facing the Caribbean.
THE CONVERSATION (**)
#Thirst #paradise #water #crisis #Caribbean #islands
