Evaluación de la calidad de las aguas de la Bahía de Kingston y la costa Hellshire, Jamaica, después de la implementación de una planta de tratamiento de aguas residuales

Abstract

Deteriorating water quality of Kingston Harbour, due primarily to sewage discharge and its effect on nearby Hellshire Coast, has been an issue since the 1970s. The implementation of a new sewage treatment facility in 2007 to receive the harbour's waste at Soapberry was expected to make a positive difference. Physico-chemical and biological parameters were used to assess water quality to determine the effect of the facility. Eleven stations used in earlier studies (1990 to 1998) were re-sampled to represent Kingston, Hunts Bay and North East Hellshire coastline over a four week sampling regime between May and June 2011. While temperature, salinity, turbidity, dissolved oxygen and pH remained unchanged between the 1990's and 2011, BOD 5 , faecal coliform and nitrate concentrations indicated that the water quality had improved minimally in Kinsgton and Hellshire,and deteriorated significantly in Hunts. Phytoplankton biomass decreased in Kingston

Small Island City Flood Risk Assessment: The Case of Kingston, Jamaica

“…Another threat to coastal ecosystems in the harbour is the pollution produced by the port and shipping operations [82]. As reported by the National Environment and Planning Agency [83], waters in Kington Harbour are heavily polluted by sewage and industrial effluents, with the wastewater treatment facilities opened in recent decades unable to cope with the diffuse waste pollution sources [84,85]. Fish and invertebrate communities, which play a fundamental part in preserving the health of coral reefs and mangroves, have also been negatively impacted by the macro and micro-plastic pollution reaching the bay [86].…”