The value of rivers in SVG By Kimani Wiseman

A visit to some of the rivers in St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the evidence is clear that a lot of us in society do not appreciate and value the importance of rivers in the environment. In some people eyesight, rivers should be used as a dumping ground for their garbage, while others use it as a cemetery for their animals. We need to change this mentality about rivers.
Rivers play a critical role in our daily lives. It supplies us with fresh water that is channeled into our homes, schools, and businesses to give us water for domestic purposes. Everybody hates water rationing, we expect whenever we turn our pipes, there must be a steady flow of water. However, the rivers that are supplying us with water in our pipes daily, we continue to pollute the rivers. Is this making any sense? Farmers use the rivers to supply their farm with water. During the dry season or in the event of a drought, farmers use the water from rivers to irrigate their crops. This helps to prevent their crops from dying and it also provide us with food to mitigate against “famine”.
The older folks in society can testify that back in the days before washing machine was invented, they use to wash their clothes in the river. This provided them with clean clothes for them to go to work and school. Most of the rivers these days are extremely polluted, you cannot wash your feet in the river. The few clean rivers that are remaining, some people use them to have river cook and picnics, which helps to bond families and friends. Rivers provide a habitat for fish, crustaceans, etc. Polluting the rivers can affect the biodiversity in the river. Rivers provides us with hydroelectricity to power our homes, schools, and businesses. 18% of our electricity is from hydro. During heavy rainfall, rivers collect water from higher elevations which helps to prevent flooding in the lower watershed. Rivers flowing from the mountains bring sediments like silt, sand, clay and gravel. These are deposited in the ocean. Long shore drift picks up and transport these sediments along the coastline which helps to form beaches and coastal features. The next time you spot a river, appreciate the marvelous job that rivers are doing in the environment and keep the rivers clean so we can continue to enjoy the benefits of the river. Our parents and grandparents kept the rivers clean, let us bring back that tradition.