The Reporter
October 25, 2009

The Belize Institute of Environmental Law and Policy (BELPO) is back in court over the muddy discharges from the Chalillo dam into the Macal and Belize rivers.  

More than a year ago, on June 30, 2008, the Supreme Court ordered the Department of the Environment to monitor and enforce BECOL’s compliance with the Chalillo dam environmental plan.  

Last month, BELPO filed papers in the Court saying that DOE has still not followed the Court’s order.

In early August, photos taken at the Chalillo Dam site showed that the changes in the Macal’s water color started at the dam.  Monitoring the water quality is just one of the steps that BECOL was supposed to take in order to reduce the damage to public health and the environment that is caused by the dam. 

In its June 2008 decision, the Court ordered DOE specifically to enforce sections of the Environmental Compliance Plan that require a dam break system, an emergency preparedness plan, testing of mercury levels in the fish, a system for public input, and water quality testing.  

In a Cabinet brief last August, DOE disclosed that it had begun to notice problems with water quality in May. Yet it  presented no  formal information on the water tests they claim to have done.

Before going back to the Supreme Court, BELPO sought the critical health information under Belize’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and filed a Notice of Application with the Ombudsman, to demand that  the public be provided with this health information. 

That is why BELPO is once again taking action, and calls on both the government and Fortis/BECOL to come clean about the muddy water in  the Macal River.

Further reading:

Environmentalists ask Belize Supreme Court for injunction to stop pollution from Canadian dam

Water Quality Update for the Macal River

Stop polluting Belize’s tropical rivers and stop the smokescreen, Probe International tells Fortis Inc.

Canadian-owned dam shocks Belize River with discharges, threatens river ecology