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Archive for March, 2008

FISH KEPT IN POLLUTED WATER FOR YOUR DINNER

March 15, 2008 at 1:58 pm · Filed under Pollution, ÞŒÞ¦Þ£Þ¦Þ‡Þ°Þ”Þ¦ÞƒÞªÞˆÞªÞ‚Þ°

Every day live fish such as Bigeye scad (Mushi mas) and Mackeral scad (Rimmas) are kept in cages in highly polluted Male’ inner harbour in front of the Fish Market. Local fishermen catch the fish from various areas and put them in the cages to be kept alive. These cages are kept in stagnated waters where oil and all sorts of trash from boats are accumulated. From the cages these fish are collected and put in baskets in Fish Market for selling.

Cages in highly polluted water in front of MalÃ© Fish Market.

Bigeye scad and Mackeral scad is commonly found in cafÃ©s and tea shops in MalÃ©. They are also consumed at households. Some people who have bought Mackeral scad and Bigeye scad have complained of â€œkerosene-like tasteâ€ from these fish.

All sorts of trash accumulated near the cages in front of Fish Market.

Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA), the competent authority established in 2006 to set the standards relating to food and drugs in Maldives, and the authority for certification of fish products to EU Market in the Maldives, while being completely aware of hygienic situation of fish sold in Fish Market in MalÃ©, still allows live fish such as Mackeral scad and Bigeye scad to be kept in these cages and sold in MalÃ© Fish Market.

In the TVM evening news on March 15, MFDA admitted that it was aware of the unhygienic conditions in the Fish Market and surrounding areas. However, it has not taken any action to stop the selling of fish from the unhygienic fish cages in polluted waters.

Fish from the cages are sold in the Fish Market.

Till very recently, contaminated groundwater was used at Fish Market for cleaning fish and washing the market floors.

According to the State of the Environment Report 2002, sewage effluent, potentially harmful substances and different chemicals are disposed untreated into coastal water of MalÃ©, by means of nine outfalls at six different locations. â€œThe pollution load from these sewer outfalls probably exceeds the dilution capacity of the receiving waters,” State of the Environment Report 2002 said.

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WHEN GROUNDWATER TURNS DEADLY

March 9, 2008 at 8:57 am · Filed under Water

(updated below)

The sad deaths of five young men in a well in MalÃ© Fish Market on 3 March 2008 (Youth Day in the Maldives) shocked the people of the Maldives and have raised concerns about the safety of the use of groundwater in MalÃ©. Those young men had been in the process of drilling boreholes in the well to increase the water level, because the well dried up easily. The well was used as the main source of water for cleaning fish and washing the floor of Fish Market in MalÃ©.

It took 5 young men to die to stop using contaminated groundwater in the Fish Market.

According to MalÃ© Water and Sewerage Company (MWSC) abnormally high levels of hydrogen sulphide (a sewer gas) and carbon monoxide were found in the well while oxygen level was very low. Doctors at the Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) believed the men had died from inhalation of toxic gases. A doctor from the hospital told the media that the five men could have died from methane, a gas which could displace oxygen in confined spaces.

According to the State of the Environment Report 2002, the groundwater in MalÃ© is not fit for washing and bathing purposes as MalÃ© has the highest level of bacterial contamination of the groundwater table in the Maldives. The groundwater in MalÃ© is very saline and the situation is further aggravated by the amount of chemicals in the water such as hydrogen sulphide and hydrocarbons.

â€œHydrogen sulphide or sewer gas has also been a major threat to well water users in MalÃ© resulting in acute poisoning of two and death of one person in 1997. Hydrogen sulphide makes the water stink and poses different health risks at different levels of exposure. Many household wells have shown elevated levels (0.5 to 3.5 ppm in water and above 100 ppm in the air) of hydrogen sulphide,â€ State of the Environment Report 2002 said.

A WHO report of 1995 further says that chemical analysis in Maleâ€™ shows that groundwater contains high amounts of nitrate and sulphates. High levels of ammonia were detected in a few wells (0.4-0.6 mg/l) indicating sewage pollution while raised pH levels (7.5 -8.0) confirmed the extent of contamination.

The people of the Maldives had traditionally been dependent on groundwater from shallow wells dug in the ground for drinking, bathing and washing purposes.

In MalÃ© hardly anyone uses the groundwater presently for drinking. However, several households in MalÃ© depend on groundwater for washing clothes and dishes while some households still use groundwater for bathing as piped desalinated water is too expensive.

Unlike other inhabited islands in the Maldives hardly any household in MalÃ© sink effluent (sewage and waste water) into the ground using septic tanks. Household effluent is collected in catch pits and transferred to MWSCâ€™s Central Sewage System. If this is the case, why is the groundwater in MalÃ© contaminated with sewage? For more than a decade, sewage manholes have been causing sewage infiltration into groundwater because of defective manhole housing. In addition, the poor design and construction of catch pits used in households have lead to further infiltration of sewage into groundwater. In order to reduce the pressure from sewer gases in manholes and thus reduce infiltration, MWSC erected sewage vents in MalÃ©, some of them located in public parks.

The use of septic tanks and the primitive sewage systems in the rest of the country causes equally alarming problems. Sinking of effluent into the ground has caused contamination of groundwater in several islands of the Maldives. Unlike MalÃ©, in the other islands the people use groundwater for washing clothes, dishes and for bathing, as piped desalinated water is not available. When rainwater is depleted, during dry spells, the people drink groundwater in several islands. In fact, 25% of the people of the Maldives depend on groundwater for drinking according to State of the Environment Report 2002.

Presently most of the wells built in MalÃ© are inside a building, in a room or office, in the ground floor, covered with a lid on the opening, normally not air tight. If these wells have sewer gases accumulated, how safe is the use of such places without good ventilation?

As the country is still trying to figure out how the unfortunate deaths of five young men took place on Youth Day, the regulatory body of water and sanitation issues in the Maldives (Maldives Water and Sanitation Authority) remains silent on this issue.

Maldives: State of the Environment 2002 pages 36-40

UPDATE – 14 March 2008

Miadhu Daily, a newspaper owned by Mr. Ahmed Abdullah, Minister of Environment, Energy and Water, has published an article titled ” Fatal incident in a well in fish market: Water was tested at fish market area prior incident â€“ MFDA” on 13 March 2008.

According to Miadhu, the Maldives Food and Drug Authority (MFDA), which has been established in 2006 to centralise the setting of standards relating to food and drugs in Maldives, has carried out a groundwater testing in the Fish Market area in January 2008. The tests carried out by the MFDA indicated presence of â€œconsiderable amounts of hydrogen sulphide and ammonium in that area”.

What is amazing to learn is that even the MFDA, while being scientifically aware of the high concentration of deadly gases in the groundwater of Male’, much prior to the deaths on Youth Day, had failed to take measures to stop the use of contaminated water to wash fish and the Fish Market’s floors.

MFDA, being completely aware of the presence of the high concentration hydrogen sulphide in the groundwater of Male’ for years, has so far not taken preventive measures, or issued a public health announcement to stop the use of groundwater in food outlets for washing dishes.

As some of our readers has suggested, Maldives Water and Sanitation Authority (MWSA) established in 1973 as regulatory body for water and sanitation in Maldives is presently not functioning properly, while MFDA have to carry out groundwater testing in the Fish Market on the request of Male’ Municipality. The whole case shows failure of respective regulatory bodies.

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