ENVIRONMENT: Seven of world’s most polluted rivers in Panama

Panama has seven of the world’s most polluted rivers according to a study of carried out,  by the non-profit organization Ocean Clean Up.

Using an interactive map with satellite technology or GPS, the organization studied a thousand rivers around the world.

The freshwater flows that are contaminated are: the Río Abajo, Matías Hernández, Río Juan Díaz, Río Matasnillo, Río Caimito, the Pacific Ocean mouth  of  the Panama Canal and the mouth of the Río Nuevo and Río Platanal, in Chiriquí.

According to Aldair Figueroa, regional coordinator of the environmental NGO Las Marabundas, on a daily basis, 102,229 tons of garbage discharge into the Panamanian seas and coasts, which makes an estimated 11,000 tons of garbage per hour.

Although the technology used for the study must be validated by a field analysis,the ecologist, Mirei Endara, calls for an urgent alert to address this social problem that involves everyone.

” A problem that we must all  address all from politics, government and the private sector, is how garbage is thrown away,” she said. adding that  the problem of pollution of rivers with garbage and plastics is not alien and affects all countries in different measures and particularly developing countries.

Miguel Flores the National Director of Environmental Verification of the Ministry of the Environment, said that among the measures that the entity carries is

the verifications of water quality or the Water Quality Index (ICA ) but due to the lack of funds involved in carrying out laboratory analyzes, it is not possible to do it in the 51 of the country maintains, so they try to give priority to those basins that are most contaminated. He also highlighted that they have Solid Catch Ecological Barriers (BEAS)  installed in the Curundú, Cárdenas, and Matasnillo rivers.

But the monitoring of the barriers had to be suspended because of the pandemic, and they could not continue with an agreement for prison inmates to perform the cleaning.