Caribbean Environment Programme - UNEP

UNEP(DEC)/CAR WG.18/6
Anexo V
Apéndice 2
Página 11
narrow coastal plain. Tourism and agriculture being the main income generating activities, All
major hotels and resorts are built along the coast. According to the recent WHO/UNICEF
Global 2000 assessment, 90% of the 6.8 million inhabitants of the Caribbean have access to
sanitation facilities. However, it is only 15% of the population that is served by sewers which are
found mainly in the urban settings. Most of the government operated treatment plants are
outdated and overloaded. In many instances, they discharge raw sewage into the bays. Hotels and
private institutions operate the other treatment installations in the islands.
The hotels operated wastewater treatment systems are all package plants. A PAHO study
in 1993 reveals that 50% of those plants were not functional continuously throughout the year
and 75% of their effluents did not comply to the international standards and neither to the CEHI
standards and was often discharged raw sewers in to sea. This situation is caused by the fact that
untrained staff operating most of the plants.
On the other hand, 75 % of the domestic wastewater were treated by onsite disposal
system: septic tanks and pit privies. However, a majority of the septic tank were not operated
efficiently due, for some of them, of improper construction, For others, it is the ground formation
which doesn’t land itself to on site disposal system. Many parts of those islands are made of
volcanic soil or clay formation therefore limiting percolation for proper functioning of soakaway
wells. In other parts, the rocky formation prevents simply any type of excavation,
therefore any installation of pit privies, soak away well or absorption field required for septic
tank use. In other cases, it is the marginal situation of some squatting development which by
limited lot space make it impossible to build any proper sanitation facilities.
In addition, the predominance of onsite disposal system (septic tank, pit latrines and
package treatment plants) has created another source of environmental concern which is the
disposal of sludge. At present, many of the countries do not have any infrastructure to receive
those sludge. As a result, those sludge are dumped indiscriminately in open pits in some island or
in unsuited and uncontrolled sited, others are dumped in open pits of the government operated
dumps sites. Few countries like Trinidad and Barbados have treatment facility for reception and
treatment of septage. And in most countries, the issue of disposal of septage is not regulated.
The solution to the improper disposal of domestic wastewater in the Caribbean could
have been resolved if the countries could extend sewage services to the unserved urban
population with properly operated treatment plants. But, the limiting factors to extend are a
matter of investment cost. The exorbitant cost of sewerage construction is the key constraining
factor limiting the expansion of sewerage system in the Caribbean. In Barbados for instance, the
cost of sewer construction is 2.5 million US dollars per kilometer of sewer in Barbados or about
US. $ 10,000 to 5,000 per capita in the Caribbean.
Based on the situation described in this paper and conscientious that the country present
economic situation will not permit them to embark in a large investment of construction of
municipal sewers for the population in needed of alternative system for disposal of domestic
sewage, PAHO position is to adopt the following strategies to assist those countries: