Environmental Health Department alarmed by number of generators on island and more coming in

​The Environmental Health Department is very concerned about the high influx of generators into Dominica lately. Senior Environmental health officer Sylvester St Ville says the generators that are presently in the country, are capable of powering-up the entire island, and still more are continuing to come in.
 
He says persons are powering up houses both in the rural and urban communities, and the situation is becoming a problem in the urban communities because of space constraints, resulting in several complaints to the health department about noise and pollutants coming from those generators.

​St Ville says several countries have standards when it comes to emission coming from the internal combustion engine, but Dominica does not have those standards, and that poses some difficulty for the department.
He believes if this is not addressed, we could see a country where people are falling ill with diseases resulting from air pollutants.

​Senior Environmental health officer Sylvester St Ville
 
Meantime, the Independent Regulatory Commission (IRC) is calling for cooperation and collaboration from the public, to have generators sets at 20 kilo watts and over, to be registered and licensed. Corine Pinard is Consumer Affairs Officer at the IRC.

​Consumer Affairs Officer at the IRC Corine Pinard
 
Most of the island is still without power since the passage of Hurricane Maria almost 4 months ago, on September 18, 2017.