UC Rusal will restock the Rio Cobre in St. Catherine with approximately 4,000 Tilipia fish.
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Glendon Johnson, Human Resource Director at UC Rusal, Kestonard Gordon, Vice-Chairman of the St. Catherine Parish Development Committee, and Dr. Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie, CEO of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET)
By Racquel Porter
Three months after the National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) ordered UC Rusal to restock the Rio Cobre in St. Catherine, approximately 4,000 Tilipia fish have been put into the river.
The bauxite company was prosecuted for polluting the Rio Cobre between July and August last year.
The restocking was carried out under the supervision of the Fisheries Authority.
UC Rusal's Human Resource Director, Glendon Johnson, told Radio Jamaica News that the residents are pleased with the restocking, in particular the size of the fish.
He said the company recognises the importance of its social responsibility and will work with members of the community.
"We relied on the experts. So we have from the Fisheries division and also another expert outside of Fisheries division. Now this is not the only location where restocking will be done. We're gonna be doing also upstream. So all in all you will have a very wide coverage of the entire Rio Cobre from the Flat Bridge going up," he noted.
But Kestonard Gordon, Vice-Chairman of the St. Catherine Parish Development Committee, complained that the restocking process was chaotic because UC Rusal did not notify the police so they could help direct traffic in the Flat Bridge area.
Mr. Gordon said he was first informed about the restocking minutes to 8 o'clock Friday morning, after which he had to informed the surrounding communities.
He further complained that there was no word on whether NEPA had completed an ecological assessment which it said would be done prior to the restocking of the river.
"We are not assured that the river is even safe enough at this point to accommodate the restocking, although we are grateful for it," he admitted.
More transparency
Dr. Theresa Rodriguez-Moodie, Chief Executive Officer of the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET), has called for the government to be more open and transparent with the public in relation to steps being taken in response to last year's fish kill in the Rio Cobre.
She said the government should also engage the community and the fishers since they are the ones who have repeatedly been negatively affected.
Dr. Rodriguez-Moodie said she also only learnt of the restocking Friday morning, despite a commitment to transparency, given by the Ministry of Economic Growth and Job Creation last November.
"We had not been informed whether or not it was being guided by an ecological assessment, what type of species were being put into the river, if there were any other organisms also being added back to the river. No engagement has been held with the fishers about this restocking exercise and we were really, really concerned about this," she asserted.
She pointed out that NEPA had said the ecological assessment would be done over a series of about four phases, however, she said no update has been forthcoming.
"We need to actually see the ecological assessment because we need to understand what is guiding how they're doing it, where they're replacing the fish," Dr. Rodriguez-Moodie demanded.
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