The Ministry of Sustainable Development, Climate Change and Disaster Risk Management, and the Ministry of Natural Resources, Petroleum and Mining are working on a groundwater monitoring system to manage aquifers in Belize.
The National Climate Change Office will collaborate with the National Hydrological Service on this effort. It is contemplated that this system will serve as a tool to track the impacts of climate change in the water sector.
The project is in its preliminary phase, and fieldwork and studies will be conducted in the New River Watershed. You'll remember that the New River became a national crisis several years ago when pollution caused a major fish kill, smothering the nearby communities with the stench of rotting fish.
Several goals for this preliminary stage include an assessment of groundwater availability and demand, mapping aquifers in the New River watershed, and benchmarking existing methodologies for groundwater monitoring.
It will be implemented over 12 months between September 2022 and August 2023.
