• Submitted by: admin
• Science and Technology
• 12 / 09 / 2006

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Caribbean Environment Network (RAC) are considering a plan to measure Caribbean Sea water quality, RAC chief Antonio Villasol announced on Thursday.

Speaking at the seventh Sea Science Congress in Havana, Villasol said the IAEA and the RAC created a database of Caribbean currents by charting them with nuclear techniques, and that the two bodies would sign a letter of intention on the topic in Vienna in February.

He added more than 500,000 tons of residues are dumped into the Caribbean each year with the Gulf of Mexico as the main source.

The congress, which runs until Friday in Havana's Palace of Conventions, has attracted experts from 15 nations engaged in fighting the deterioration of the Caribbean water quality due to biological, industrial and agricultural pollution.

RAC was among the first wave of institutions to join the Caribbean Region Environment Program Network, alongside Curacao's Hydrocarbons Limb, the Guadeloupe Specially Protected Flora and Fauna Organization.

The Network also includes Colombia's Marine Investigation Center, St Lucia's Environmental Health Organization and Venezuela's Oceanographic Institute.