By Kimani Wiseman
Visit some of the rivers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and it is clear that a lot of us do not appreciate and value the importance of rivers in the environment. In some people’s view, rivers should be used as a dumping ground for their garbage while others use them as a cemetery for their animals. We need to change this mentality about rivers.
Rivers play a critical role in our daily lives. They supply us with fresh water that is channelled into our homes, schools, and businesses to give us water for domestic purposes. Everybody hates water rationing; we expect that whenever we turn our pipes on there will be a steady flow of water. Yet we continue to pollute rivers although they supply us with water in our pipes daily.
Does this make any sense? Farmers use the rivers to supply their farms with water. During the dry season or in the event of a drought, farmers use the water from rivers to irrigate their crops. This helps to prevent their crops from dying and it also provides us with food which mitigates against famine.
The older folks in society can testify that back in the days before washing machines became popular, they used to wash their clothes in the river. This provided them with clean clothes to wear to work and school.
Most of the rivers these days are extremely polluted. You cannot wash your feet in the river. The few clean rivers remain, some people use them to have river cooks and picnics, which helps to bond families and friends.
Rivers provide a habitat for fish, crustaceans, etc. Polluting the rivers can affect the biodiversity of the river. Rivers provide us with hydroelectricity to power our homes, schools, and businesses. Eighteen per cent of our electricity is from hydro. During heavy rainfall, rivers collect water from higher elevations, which helps to prevent flooding in the lower watershed. Rivers flowing from the mountains bring sediments like silt, sand, clay and gravel.
These are deposited in the ocean. Longshore drift picks up and transports these sediments along the coastline, which helps to form beaches and coastal features.
The next time you see a river, appreciate the marvellous job that rivers are doing in the environment and keep the rivers clean so we can continue to enjoy the benefits of the river.
Our parents and grandparents kept the rivers clean, let us bring back that tradition.
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Where can I begin? I remember when I was a little child I used to go to the river to wash clothes. It is sad to hear what is going on about rivers. The bible talks about the pure rivers of water of life…water is life. Who own the water own life. Think about this. If those 1% who have some money in their pocket decided to poison the water how are you going to manage? Water is the most important thing in life. We should keep it clean. The people who are polluting the rivers have no clue how important those water are in the coming days. If push comes to shove God will cause a spring to come up in my back yard because I’m his child. The world is in a hopeless situation and only those who know their God shall be strong. Don’t blame anyone for what is going on. We all play a part in its mess. Repent! Turn around and go the Kingdom way and things will change for you. Now if everyone would do this things will change for good.
Not a tradition but decency. Your article is spot on and much appreciated. It must be clear that persons going to the rivers/beaches
for entertainment (family/friends gathering) must take with them their belongings (trash included) when leaving the site. Continue to write on these important subject. Thank you..