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Cleaning Up Panama Bay A Wide-Ranging Task
With a large growth in population Panama has fallen behind in the proper disposal of sewage from their residents. Because of this, the sewage was routed into rivers that carried it to the Panama Bay. With the raw sewage going to the bay the smell and contamination of the bay has set forth, over the past decade, a massive clean up of the bay and creating a better system of waste processing.
Panama is located in Central America and is the southernmost country there. The Panama Canal is probably the most famous thing in this country as it is a vital canal used for ships to transit between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The government of the country has been through various regimes, with the military and United States playing a big part of it. Presently the government is presided over by President Ricardo Martinelli. The country has seen a huge growth in population, in 1960 there were 1.1 million people in the country and as of 2008 there were 3.4 million.
With the large growth in population, the country did not set up a sewage treatment plant for any of their large cities. Instead, each city routed the sewage directly into the local rivers, which contaminated that river and the bay that it dumped into. With each large city doing this, it turned the countries natural waterworks into a bacteria filled mess that emitted strong odors as well.
The Panama City and Bay of Panama Cleanup Project has been implemented to try to fix this environmental and health problem that faces the country. This project has been partially funded by Latin America's development bank, CAF. CAF is vested in the project that is helping clean the area around the bay, and developing and placing a waste water treatment plant in the area as well. Over $1 billion has been funded by CAF for the project in the last five years and in 2010 they have funded $540 million.
The Ministry of Health is executing the construction of the sanitary drain network, sanitary sewers, and the designing, planning, and construction of the of the water treatment plant. The sanitary drain network will be approximately 135 kilometers in length encompassing all the residential areas. The sewer system will include an interceptor tunnel that will be 3 meters in diameter and 8.2 kilometers long.
Because of the size of this project, the country purchased special equipment to help drill the new sewer system. The tunnel boring machine was manufactured in Schwanau, Germany by Herrenknecht, it is 3.6 meters in diameter and 124 meters long. The tunnel boring machine, which arrived in August, is nicknamed after President Martinelli's mother, Gloria, and is painted the colors of the Panamanian flag.
Presently there is a strong odor that is emitted from all of the natural water works in the country. The rivers and bay have a bad stench and a great deal of bacteria present in each. Because of that any water recreation is not taking place and there is a lack of any sort of fishing. Although there are fish still present in the water they are, many times, sick or contaminated as well. In the past, residents of the country would go swimming in the bay but with the stench and contamination that is not something that takes place anymore.
The natural cleansing of the environment will take another 10 or 15 years after this project is completed. A focus for the residents of Panama is to get an infrastructure that will halt the impact to the environment and their health. Once the project is completed there is hope that the people will, once again go swimming and fishing in the water in their country.
Panama is located in Central America and is the southernmost country there. The Panama Canal is probably the most famous thing in this country as it is a vital canal used for ships to transit between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. The government of the country has been through various regimes, with the military and United States playing a big part of it. Presently the government is presided over by President Ricardo Martinelli. The country has seen a huge growth in population, in 1960 there were 1.1 million people in the country and as of 2008 there were 3.4 million.
With the large growth in population, the country did not set up a sewage treatment plant for any of their large cities. Instead, each city routed the sewage directly into the local rivers, which contaminated that river and the bay that it dumped into. With each large city doing this, it turned the countries natural waterworks into a bacteria filled mess that emitted strong odors as well.
The Panama City and Bay of Panama Cleanup Project has been implemented to try to fix this environmental and health problem that faces the country. This project has been partially funded by Latin America's development bank, CAF. CAF is vested in the project that is helping clean the area around the bay, and developing and placing a waste water treatment plant in the area as well. Over $1 billion has been funded by CAF for the project in the last five years and in 2010 they have funded $540 million.
The Ministry of Health is executing the construction of the sanitary drain network, sanitary sewers, and the designing, planning, and construction of the of the water treatment plant. The sanitary drain network will be approximately 135 kilometers in length encompassing all the residential areas. The sewer system will include an interceptor tunnel that will be 3 meters in diameter and 8.2 kilometers long.
Because of the size of this project, the country purchased special equipment to help drill the new sewer system. The tunnel boring machine was manufactured in Schwanau, Germany by Herrenknecht, it is 3.6 meters in diameter and 124 meters long. The tunnel boring machine, which arrived in August, is nicknamed after President Martinelli's mother, Gloria, and is painted the colors of the Panamanian flag.
Presently there is a strong odor that is emitted from all of the natural water works in the country. The rivers and bay have a bad stench and a great deal of bacteria present in each. Because of that any water recreation is not taking place and there is a lack of any sort of fishing. Although there are fish still present in the water they are, many times, sick or contaminated as well. In the past, residents of the country would go swimming in the bay but with the stench and contamination that is not something that takes place anymore.
The natural cleansing of the environment will take another 10 or 15 years after this project is completed. A focus for the residents of Panama is to get an infrastructure that will halt the impact to the environment and their health. Once the project is completed there is hope that the people will, once again go swimming and fishing in the water in their country.
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