THERE IS no evidence of contamination of the Molyneaux drinking water public supply  well by the Mangrove Pond Landfill. This assurance came from the Barbados Water Authority (BWA) in the wake of a report which suggested this was one of the reasons for closing the first Mangrove Pond Landfill in the mid-1980s. Former director of the Sewerage and Solid Waste Project Unit, Arthur Archer, said in an interview that he was aware of contamination of the well on the West Coast and that was one of the reasons why the old Mangrove Pond Landfill was moved.

However, water quality analyst with the BWA, Alex Ifill, said that exhaustive tests had turned up no contamination. He said tests were done last year on the toxic leachate from the landfill to find out what was in it and whether any of its constituents had affected the water in the well and the results were negative.

The BWA continues to sample the well quarterly for heavy metals and trace metals and there had been no evidence of contamination. Manager of the Sanitation Service Authority, Chris Griffith, also said he was unaware of any contamination of the Molyneaux well from the landfill which his department manages.

"The relocation of the landfill had absolutely nothing to do with contamination of Molyneaux. I was never ever informed that there were signs of contamination from Mangrove Pond, but I do know that it was Norwoods which showed traces of nitrates and nitrites in the water and that could have come from a nearby farm," he told the Daily Nation.

He said the sole reason for moving from the old Mangrove site to the present site across the road was because they ran out of space.

"[There was no link between] the relocation of Mangrove Pond and contamination, I could prove it beyond the shadow of a doubt. The landfill was at a height which it should never had been and as a matter of fact it had gone beyond the agreed height when we rented the land from Barbados Farms Limited, so much so, that we had to acquire the land."