Projects

Environmental analysis,Strategies and development programmes,Expertise and research work,

Consultancy Services for the Implementation of a Water Quality Index (WQI) system for lagoons in Mauritius

Mauritius

European Commission

Mauritius Ministry of Finance and Economic Empowerment

Mauritius, as a Small Island Developing State, is considering the introduction of Lagoonal Water Quality Indexing (LWQI) for informed decision-making, policy implementation, education & awareness and communicating lagoonal water quality to the public in a simplified manner. Though lagoonal monitoring is already ongoing at various locations around the island through existing monitoring programmes, the absence of a common indexing mechanism renders it difficult to obtain a global understanding of water quality. Various institutions are involved in lagoonal monitoring, including the Albion Fisheries Research Centre (AFRC) which is the lead institution, the National Environmental Laboratory (NEL), and the Wastewater Management Authority (WMA), each working under its own programme. The Central Water Authority also has its own sampling and monitoring programme for boreholes around the island, including those in the coastal zone. Analyses of seawater samples for the different physico-chemical and microbial parameters will constitute an input for a Lagoonal Water Quality Index. Water Quality Guidelines and Standards already exist under the Environment Protection Act (EPA) 2002 and at present, analyses are carried out based on these guidelines and standards. The development of a LWQI will therefore help in providing meaningful information at all levels. It will obviously improve communication with managers and increases public awareness of water quality. The index should be able to show water quality variation both spatially and temporally to allow users to easily interpret data and relate overall water quality variation to variations in specific categories of impairment. The water quality index should also be able to identify coastal water quality trends and problem areas and will be applied to different category of water uses (recreation, conservation, fisheries, industrial etc).

Start date: 2009-05-01

End date: 2009-11-30