Panama's New floating barriers cut polluting waste reaching oceans

The two new floating barriers installed in Panama have prevented some 15,000 pounds of polluting waste from reaching the ocean in their first months of operation, multiplying an environmental care model that began to be implemented in 2019 reports TVN.

Located in the middle and lower basin of the Escarrea River, Santo Tomás district, Alanje district, in Chiriquí, the two floating barriers are part of an environmental education project of the Panamanian Organization for Life and the Environment (Opava), with the technical advice and support of the non-profit association Marea Verde.

The Opava barriers were achieved after being presented to the Our Ocean organization and winning funds for their implementation with the technical support of Marea Verde. Our Ocean is a conference focused on safeguarding marine resources, which was held in Panama on March 2 and 3, 2023.

65 % of the waste trapped so far by the barriers in the Escarrea River is plastic and 30% from the use of agrochemicals, according to Marea Verde, responsible for bringing to Panama the first floating barrier, the BOB (of the expression “barrier or garbage”), which in a year and a half of operation in the Matías Hernández River, managed to retain about 100 tons of waste such as about 50 refrigerators, numerous tires, baby strollers, suitcases, pipes for aqueduct and sewage systems and, mainly, a lot of plastic.