Dear Editor,

In an article, ‘Ever so welcome, wait for a call,’ by Mr Arif Bulkan in Stabroek News of December 1, 2008, he stated that “a recent news report revealed contamination in the ground water supply of Barbados, attributing this to the unhygienic habits of squatters in certain districts.” He implied in his article that the squatters were all illegal immigrants from Guyana. The type of contamination of the ground water supply was not stated, but again it entailed that the contamination originated from human faeces and otherwise.

Barbados ground water supply comes from freshwater lenses trapped between layers of salt water below and coral rocks above. The fresh water originates from rainfall percolating through the coral rocks and is trapped as freshwater lenses and in the interstices of the rock whose thickness varies from a few inches to several feet.

Bridgetown, the capital of Barbados has a central sewage system but the other towns and villages use septic tanks and open drains as their major means of liquid human waste disposal. It is therefore inconceivable that squatters were pinpointed as the originators for contaminating the ground water supply when no tracer elements were used to identify the source and elements contaminating the ground water.

Contamination could have originated from several possible sources, such as human waste from faulty septic tanks, chemicals, pesticides and most important, the mixing of the freshwater lens with the heavier salt water due to over pumping.

I believe Barbadians have to be more specific and identify beyond any reasonable doubt the source and type of toxic elements contaminating their underground water supply rather than drumming up flimsy, unfounded, xenophobic hysteria about hard-working Guyanese helping to develop their country in key economic sectors.

Finally, it is worth noting that many of the people in Barbados of East Indian extraction are from Trinidad. Many hotels, condominiums and businesses there are owned and managed by them, but for reasons still undetermined, much of the visceral prejudice is directed towards the Guyanese.

Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan