- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - Hier 19:56

CoP Guevarro leads police operation at illegal quarry site

DAYS after a Newsday report highlighted the major pollution of a the environmentally-sensitive Guanapo River, as a direct result of an illegal quarry operator pumping tonnes of silt into that river – threatening to disrupt the water supply to thousands of residents – Commissioner of Police Allister Guevarro has led a team of officers to a visit to the illegal quarry. A July 3 TTPS press release said Commissioner Guevarro led a "targeted operation" on July 2, in the affected areas to assess the situation on the ground. The release said this operation was in acknowledgement of recent reports highlighting illegal quarrying and mining activities in the Sangre Grande, Valencia, and Manuel Congo regions. These unauthorised operations, the release said, raised significant environmental and infrastructural concerns, including disruptions to operations at the Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) water treatment plant. The release concluded by saying operations are actively underway to ascertain the extent of any criminal conduct associated with these locations. According to a June 29 report by the Sunday Newsday, on June 25, officers of elite police special unit, the Multi-Agency Task Force, were alerted to the illegal quarrying activity and a report reached the desk of Guevarro. The operator, the Sunday Newsday story said, is based in Sangre Grande, and has carved out more than five hectares of state land excavating tonnes of aggregate to stockpiles on private land. The operator, who does not have a mining licence, has for years excavated hectares of state lands in Melajo, in Sangre Grande, Matura, Wallerfield and other areas with little to no intervention by neither the Ministry of Energy, the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) nor the Forestry Division of the police service. The Sunday Newsday story claimed this operator has close ties with senior politicians in both the UNC and PNM, and had divested hundreds of millions made from illegal quarrying into real estate developments and other legitimate businesses. The story said information was shared with WASA on June 27 by Newsday and the authority dispatched a team of investigators that same day to validate the information. In a statement on June 28, WASA said it, "became aware of and strongly condemns the reckless and unlawful action of a quarrying contractor responsible for discharging effluent directly into tributaries leading to the Guanapo River. "This blatant violation of environmental regulations has resulted in visible contamination of the watercourse, negatively impacting water production efficiency at the Caroni Water Treatment Plant. The immediate consequence is reduced water availability, as the authority is now compelled to implement enhanced purification measures to maintain safety standards." The post CoP Guevarro leads police operation at illegal quarry site appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.