South-west
slowly sinking
By Kristy Ramnarine
Trinidad Express
Port Spain
Petroleumworldtt.com
05 27 07
The South-west coast of Trinidad in the area of
Cedros is sinking.
This is happening because of a rise in sea levels
around Trinidad, Dr John Agard, chairman of the
Environmental Management Authority (EMA), said
yesterday.
He
was speaking at the opening ceremony of the third
EMA workshop "Melting Ice; A Hot Topic:
The Trinidad and Tobago Perspective" at the
Learning Resource Centre at the University of the
West Indies, St Augustine.
Agard said that sea levels are likely to continue
to rise on average during the century around the
islands in the Caribbean Sea.
"For
Trinidad it is rising about 1.3 mm per year in
the North coast and on average about 1.6
mm in the South-west coast which seems impossible
for a small island. How can be have different sea
level rise on different coasts?
"Well
is suggests that the South-west coast is sinking.
Of course you know down on the Cedros
end there is a lot of erosion and of course we
have a large petroleum industry, so extraction
of oil and gas from underground will have some
subsidence."
Agard
said it is a fact that sea level is rising in
Trinidad and Tobago and it has been "rising
for a very long while, probably since the industrial
revolution when we weren't measuring. We know that
it has probably risen for more than ten cm so far."
He said the extent of the damage is clearly visible
with the erosion around the East Coast (Manzanilla/Mayaro).
In 1998, Dr Bhawan Singh, climatologist at the
University of Montreal, who conducted research
in Trinidad, indicated that global climate change
would have regional impacts.
He said Trinidad was losing as many as two square
metres a year to rising sea levels, which may be
due to melting ice sheets and the thermal expansion
of water.
"Your rising seas in the coastal regions
would penetrate your coastal estuaries and of course
affect the life of the eco-system in these estuaries.
It would also affect drinking water supplies because
your fresh water would be contaminated by salt
water," he said.
Later
in July 2005, Keith M Miller of the Department
of Surveying and Land Information, University of
the West Indies, St Augustine, wrote in Marine
Geodesy, Volume 28: "That while sea level
at a location in North Trinidad is rising at the
rate of about 1 mm a year, the change at a southern
site is about four times this amount."
Trinidad
Express
Tuesday, May 22nd 2007
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