Ecobreves – PANAMA: Bay Clean Up Requires Pollution Prevention

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

PANAMA CITY, Jun 16 2003 (IPS) - The plan to clean up the Bay of Panama, on the Pacific coast, will be only a half solution to the problem if the causes behind the contamination are not tackled, says Panama's environmental prosecutor, Giovanni Olmos. The Panamanian government signed a contract in late May with the Hazen & Sawyer company to design sewage and sanitation networks and to draft plans to improve the existing systems.

But if the bay is to recover from being the destination of the liquid waste and sewage coming from Panama City — home to 750,000 people, it will require “compliance with the rules on discharge into bodies of water and the state must be firm in sanctioning the polluters,” said Olmos.

According to the official timeline, the work to clean up the city and a 350-square-km area of the Bay of Panama will be completed in 10 to 12 years. But the period could be extended to 25 years if measures are not implemented to prevent further environmental damage, said the official.

The project is being financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) for a sum of 3.7 million dollars.