Kingston Harbour
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Marine biologist and ecologist, Professor Mona Webber
A warning has been issued for people to desist from swimming in the Kingston Harbour due to the high level of pollution.
Professor Mona Webber, marine biologist and ecologist, has said the water could pose health risks.
Speaking at the GraceKennedy Annual Lecture entitled Clean Kingston Harbour held in St. Andrew on Wednesday, Professor Webber said the problem is caused by eutrophication.
Eutrophication is when a body of water becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients which induce excessive growth of plants and algae.
Professor Webber said the problem is not only nutrients but also solid waste coming from nineteen gullies and two rivers.
She said this is a major problem.
"If you have garbage in your house and it's not collected, it goes outside waiting for the garbage truck or it goes directly into the gully and our garbage disposal systems have been overwhelmed, and so the Riverton City dump cannot handle the volumes of waste that we're producing; and this waste, of course, efficiently - sometimes not so much - but it runs off from the land and it impacts these natural valuable systems, so this is where your garbage ends up...in the Kingston Harbour," she asserted.
Professor Webber lamented the danger that plastics have on the marine environment. Noting that plastics take up to 450 years to break down, she said there are 2.6 million particles per kilometre square in the Kingston Harbour.
She said fish are compromised by the accumulation of chemicals from the plastics in their bodies and this could also end up affecting humans.
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