Monday
Jul132009
Um, I would say this is really very bad.
Monday, July 13, 2009 at 03:41PM Chris yesterday published their findings on the number of fecal coliforms and E.coli in the Talek River and it seems that there's an awful lot. The recommended level by the United States Environmental Protection Agency Standards is fewer than 200 colonies per 100ml of water.
The Talek River has a whopping 5,000.
The high levels could come from the camps and lodges that pump out raw sewage straight into the river. Make sure you know what your lodge does with it's waste and share here if you like.
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Reader Comments (4)
This is disgusting Will. Talk about a 'sick' river. I will discuss this with 'my' camp when I get there.
That is really innovative what Olonana is doing to clean their water of waste. I imagine this process was very expensive to set up? And hiring a ful-time person to monitor is an expensive. Wonder what other camps would be willing to follow suit?
all these camps' dumping their raw sewage into the talek river is both immoral and destructive to all ( because their waste is destroying the very thing all tourists come to enjoy and see ).
sounds like the french riviera ecoli levels where people dip their parts into e coli that is astonishingly 5,000 times higher than that in the beaches in Toronto! So I've heard.
people are so destructive and indifferent and we're marching to our doom. Too bad we have to take out all the animals first as it's us that deserves to get taken out.
It's not all the tourist camps. There is a ton of animal use of the river which contributes to high coliform counts. The 200 colonies per 100 ml limit is for effluent from wastewater treatment plants. Bodies of water can have much higher counts. 500 colonies per 100 ml is usually the high limit. High coliform counts can also be due to rain events.
A wetlands treatment system needs water all year long to sustain it. With seasonal tourism uses water may need to be added to sustain the wetlands during the low periods.
There are many, many treatment systems available to treat wastewater from the camps and lodges to a degree that it will not impact the environment.
Proper treatment of wastewater should be a requirement for operating within the Mara Triangle.