Cuba: Floating barrier prevents solid waste from reaching the sea

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 22 (ACN) A floating barrier placed on the Havana´s Almendares river has prevented hundreds of tons of waste generated by the communities and state entities located on the banks of the river flow from reaching the sea.

The device, built by Ciegoplast enterprise, collects the solid waste that comes downriver to palliate the amount of polluting elements that reach the sea each year.
"The water is cleaner since they set the trap, located a few meters from the bridge on 23rd Street, towards the source of the river. The color of the water has also changed and those attending Almendares Park can navigate in the boats, without the need to circumvent floating objects, as happened before," said to Granma newspaper Asdrúbal Chambert Téllez, head of the Sanitation and Cleanliness Brigade in the Metropolitan Park.
This type of barrier constitutes a unitary operation to attenuate the area of dispersion of floating materials and is part of other actions to keep the Almendares alive, among which are the reforestation of its water-regulating strip and surrounding areas, and the growth of environmental education among the communities settled on its banks.
Specialists consulted by Granma estimated that, although plastics, nylon and part of the hydrocarbons, greases and other lighter materials are trapped, other dissolved or colloidal pollutants are still on their way to the sea, although on a smaller scale due to the existence of treatment plants.
For this reason, in order to control pollution and revive the waterway and its surroundings, it is necessary to strengthen social, community and recreational work along the communities bordering the river and located in the Great Metropolitan Park of Havana, which is part of the Almendares-Vento watershed, which supplies much of the water consumed by the capital.