A massive amount of fish was found dead in Black River, St. Elizabeth this month. Up to 10 miles upstream dead fish were being found. Jamaica’s National Environment and Planning Agency (NEPA) was slow to act and has now admitted that its slow response may have prevented it from identifying the culprit(s) responsible for the environmental mess.

In a statement following the September 1 incident, NEPA said that it suspected that there was a release of dunder. Dunder is the yeast-rich foam leftovers from one batch of rum that is used to start the yeast culture of a second batch. It is the traditional yeast source in Jamaican rum and is known to be a critical step in achieving an authentic rum flavor. The dark-coloured leftover smells like stale sugar and is toxic to fish. Many people who live in the area claim that is an annual event and are concerned about the agency’s lack of power to stop or investigate it.Jamaica’s famous rum industry has played an important history on the island. In 1893, there were over 148 distilleries located on the island. By 1948 there were only 25 and now the number is around 5. Seems that with only 5 distilleries it would be easy to nab the culprit or culprits who polluted the river. But without a suspect at this point, NEPA vows to be vigilant and to put measures in place to catch the individual or entities guilty of such acts in the future.

Jamaica currently produces the widest varieties of rum in the world. In fact, the island has the capacity to produce up to 50 million litres of rum annually. Jamaican rums are presently sold in over 70 countries around the world.

Tags: Environmental Hazards, pollution, rum industry

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 20th, 2009 at 10:50 am and is filed under Agriculture, Environment, Water. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.