By Monique Hepburn, Staff ReporterWESTERN BUREAU:
AN ENVIRONMENTAL nightmare could be facing Montego Bay soon as an estimated 90 per cent of the sewage generated in and around the second city is said to flowing, untreated, into the Marine Park. "The Montego Bay sewerage system is designed to service only 20 per cent of the city's inhabitants," said Jill Williams, executive director of the Montego Bay Marine Park. She told The Gleaner on Thursday that the Montego Bay sewerage system "is ... treating only 10 per cent of the sewage produced by households and businesses connected to it. Ninety per cent of the city is not connected."
Mrs. Williams pointed out that "currently 4.5 million gallons of effluent goes into the sea per day from the sewage ponds." She said also that "nutrients from sewage effluent promote growth of algae that smother the reefs." The Montego Bay sewerage system runs from Gloucester Avenue to Bogue.
WELL-KNOWN HOTEL
The Gleaner has been reliably informed that at least one well-known hotel on Gloucester Avenue is not connected to the system. The National Water Commission (NWC) is said to be aware of that situation.
When contacted about the report of the hotel in question not being on the sewerage main, Fred Hayles, waste water manager at the NWC Montego Bay, declined to comment.
"I am not authorised to divulge any information without permission from Mr. Charles Buchanan," (public relations manager of the NWC), Mr. Hayles said.
Winston Dear, president of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce, said he wanted to see areas such as Reading and Unity Hall tied into the sewerage system and areas such as Ironshore, Coral Gardens and Rose Hall having their own systems.
"A sewerage system needs to be put in place for the communities of Ironshore, Coral Gardens and Rose Hall. Each of the major hotels in this area has its own micro-sewer system which by itself is inadequate," Mr. Dear said. "A central sewerage system needs to be put in place."
