The Environmental Management Authority (EMA) is moving to clamp down on noise pollution via the enactment of new measures.
Those include the registration of source emitters.
The announcement was made at the a research symposium, titled—Managing Our Protected Areas and Species: Linking Science to Policy and Decision-Making—held at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre, Port-of-Spain, yesterday.
The EMA’s acting managing director Gayatri Badri Maharaj said the nation’s air quality remained top priority.
Saying that in 2014 the air pollution rules were enacted she added: “We are about to commence the registration phase, with our air unit working towards having source emitters registered over the period December 1, 2015 to May 2016.
“This will then be followed by the permitting phase, during which work will begin on ensuring that our nation’s polluters are brought into acceptable standards as laid out in the schedules of the Air Pollution Rules, 2014.”
She said closely associated with work on Air Pollution Rules, 2014 was progress made in acquiring and deploying new air quality monitoring equipment which formed part of the EMA’s efforts to establish a national ambient air quality monitoring network and eventual introduction of tools, such as air quality index.
Good progress, she added, was also made with the implementation of the water pollution rules 2001, specifically the water pollution permitting process and the development of ambient water quality standards.
“The work being undertaken in areas of air and water quality has a close nexus to our environmentally sensitive species and environmentally sensitive areas.
“With the improved ability to regulate and monitor our water and air, we can potentially reduce some of the harmful effects that currently affect our environmentally sensitive areas and species,” Badri Maharaj added.
Dr David Persaud, who delivered the address on behalf of Planning and Development Minister Camille Robinson-Regis, said illegal hunting, illegal quarrying, unregulated development and poor agricultural practices continued to destroy T&T’s fragile ecosystems and placed pressure on the populations of our fauna and flora.
Persaud said some of Government’s initiative to protect T&T’s biological resources included the declaration of the environmentally sensitive areas and species, including the Nariva Swamp, Aripo Savannah Strict Nature Reserve and the Matura National Park.
Ten species, he added, have also been declared environmentally sensitive, including the Pawi, golden tree frog, manatee, white-tailed sabre wing humming bird, ocelot and most recently the leatherback, loggerhead, hawksbill, green and olive ridley sea turtles.
“Restoration of the Nariva Swamp environmentally sensitive area is currently being implemented through a project funded by the green fund.
“The project focuses on the rehabilitation of 500 hectares of the portion in the Nariva Swamp previously utilised for rice cultivation,” Persaud added.