Saint Lucia: SMMA hosts water quality awareness campaign

Saint Lucia: Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Rural Development Ministry and the Soufriere Marine Management Association Inc (SMMA) have collaborated to bring awareness to the importance of clean water, which is vital to individual health, collective agricultural and tourism needs and the needs of our environment; and to challenge people to get involved to safeguard water security.

On the heels of the United Nations National Water Quality Month celebrated in August and the National Water Quality Monitoring Day observed on September 18, the Ministry of Agriculture and the SMMA, with support from the Global Environmental Fund Small Grants Programme (GEF-SGP), and other partners will host a series of water quality awareness events during the month of September under the theme: “Bon Kalité Glo pou Tout: Challenging our Attitudes and Practices for Safer, Cleaner Water.”

Upcoming events are listed as follows:

Panel Discussion: Clean Oceans, our lives depend on it – September 28, 2022

School/Public Awareness Sensitisation Drive in Soufriere – September 29, 2022

Launch of social media challenge to raise awareness on water quality issues – To be announced

Past events include:

Water Quality Field Test in Soufriere – September 19, 2022

Panel Discussion: Perspectives on Water Quality and the Green Economy – September 14, 2022

Riverbank clean-up and Tree planting in Vieux Fort – September 21, 2022

Overall, it’s important to protect Saint Lucia’s water sources. There are more than thousands of factors that can have a negative impact on the quality of local water sources ranging from inappropriate solid waste disposal, and the discard of pollutants and other chemicals such as pesticides in water sources.