Feb 19 - Day 3 - Aquaponics
Finally my most anticipated visit of the trip, the aquaponics facility. Seeing a smaller scale aquaponic system provides a better realistic goal to building one as the previous one I have seen before was in Cape Town and was a large system meant to sustain a restaurant. The most I learnt from this visit is seeing another type of set up and filtering process. This can help solve both food and water security because of the lack of water loss in the whole aquaponic system. This system uses less than 10% of water compared to traditional agriculture. Though, it cannot grow crops like roots and tubulars as they require soil to be grown in and not water or clay media. Regardless, this can help answer some questions of increased agricultural production but with a goal of sustaining water security as the issue was raised from the previous day.
Afterwards we went to the UWI farm field and did a quick tour seeing how the farm is irrigated from the wells they had dug. They did not consider the impacts of pesticides and herbicides on the soil absorption into the aquifers. Eventually the pollution will filter into the aquifers and pollute their own supply of drinking water. This reinforced my speculation of agricultural run offs from the first post with the potential of chemicals seeping into the groundwater supply. Very surprising that they would not consider this issue as a challenge to sustainable water security. Other investors are also coming into “develop” this farm including the Chinese. Assumptions with a reciprocal deal on return on investment will occur. In hindsight, because they are funded to do research and their goal is monetary gain, they will receive money to do any research including ones that are detrimental to the soil and groundwater and not taking in the cost of externalities.
Going back to UWI. Discussion of water security. Not a lot of focus on the topic of mangroves as of yet. Discussion of coastal regions and rising salt water levels in the aquifers still need to be addressed for my group project. Having exchanged contacts with the professors at UWI will hopefully provide more insight.
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