FREEPORT, Grand Bahama -- The EARTHCARE/Save the Bays Saturday Environmental Education Programme continued on February 8th, 2014. Students from various schools on Grand Bahama gathered in the Mary Star of the Sea Auditorium to learn about three types of Pollution: Air, Water and Ground. Gail Woon, Founder of EARTHCARE and a Director of Save the Bays gave the students an overview of pollution and its ramifications for our country.
"Pollution is a very serious problem in the Bahamas. With the porous nature of our ground, when pollutants are dumped on the ground they seep into the limestone substrate and into the freshwater lens that is used for drinking water.
Air pollution is an issue as well. Fortunately we have steady winds and much of the air pollution is moved. The unfortunate thing is that our air pollution contributes to climate change which will eventually have very detrimental effect s on our Bahamian islands, such as sea level rise. In places like Nassau, and Pinder's Point on Grand Bahama the air pollution can be so bad at times that people suffer ill health effects such as asthma, breathing difficulties and other adverse health effects such as cancer.
Water pollution is a huge issue especially now that we have oil exploration looming on our doorstep. We have oil spills regularly. I have had reports of sweetwater trucks dumping raw sewage into the canals of Grand Bahama at night in years past. Runoff from the land also contributes to polluting our waters. This runoff can include the chemicals used in inorganic fertilizers from farms and golf courses. A good example of where NOT to build a golf course, is Baker's Bay. The coral reef scientists predicted that the nitrates and phosphates running off from the golf course on the beach, would cause eutrophication. The algae that are indicators of nutrient pollution are proliferating now in the shallow water on the beach by the golf course at Baker's Bay," said Gail Woon.

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