Poster abstracts and manuscripts from the Third International ...

Sweeney, Vincent D.
Pollution of Castries Harbour, St. Lucia, West Indies.
74
Caribbean Environmental Health Institute, Castries, St. Lucia
The city of Castries is the capital of St. Lucia, an island of
approximately 238 square miles located in the Eastern, Caribbean.
The population of Castries is approximately 60,000, almost 50% of
the island's total population of 140,000. This densely populated
city is characterized by many of the problems typical of small
island developing states, such as poor liquid and solid waste
management systems.
Castries Harbour, renowned for being one of the most picturesque
harbours in the Caribbean, suffers from severe pollution problems
from a variety of sources, including port related activities,
sewage and, most notably, the Castries River. The Castries
River, which empties into the harbour, can be transformed by a
downpour of rain from a trickle to a raging torrent. This
phenomenon, combined with the practice by many of the residents
of the city of disposing of their domestic waste into the
"nearest gully" (usually a tributary to the Castries River),
results in large volumes of solid waste being deposited in the
harbour. Much of the waste includes floatable debris which does
not make its way out to sea, but accumulates, instead, in the
many inlets of the harbour, creating an unsightly and potentially
hazardous nuisance.
Although part of the problem can be attributed to the poor solid
waste collection system in Castries, a major cause can be the
lack of public awareness related to pollution and also the
attitude of many persons that "it is okay to dump in the drains.
and ravines since after it rains the problem is gone away." A
major challenge facing St. Lucia, and much of the Wider
Caribbean, is to educate the general public on the ills of
pollution, from indiscriminate dumping and otherwise, starting at
the primary/elementary school level and using the widest possible
media exposure. It is clear that unless attitudes change,
technical approaches will have limited success.