THE Environmental Foundation of Jamaica last Thursday awarded grants totalling more than $60 million to several non-governmental organisations as well as departments within the University of the West Indies (UWI) that are engaged in environmental programmes.

The UWI’s International Centre for Environmental and Nuclear Sciences (ICENS) will use its $5.9 million to undertake a two-year project examining the effects of heavy metal on agriculture and health in Jamaica.

According to Professor Gerald Lalor, of ICENS, there is an “awful lot in the environment” that is natural but very harmful to humans.

“The implications on the environment and public health could be very significant — particularly with diseases such as breast cancer, prostate cancer and end-stage renal failure, for which there is such a tenuous sort of connection with these metals,” Professor Lalor said.

Overall, grants to the university exceeded $26 million with two disbursements each going to the Department of Geography & Geology and the Chemistry Department.

The Geography & Geology Department will undertake a two-year $5.9 million project evaluating coastal changes and hazards in Jamaica and a two-month project for the “verification of offshore sand and gravel deposits” on the island’s south coast shelf. The grant for this project is $133,000.

The two projects to be undertaken by the Department of Chemistry are a 12-month start-up funding for undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in occupational and environmental safety and health and a 12-month project monitoring air pollution in the corporate area.

The projects cost $2 million and $3.7 million respectively.

Meanwhile, a $4.5-million grant was made to the Department of Life Sciences to raise the public’s interest level on the importance and value of the mangroves. And there was another $3.7 million given to the Department of Pure and Applied Sciences for the development of a High Performance Liquid Chromatography system for the separation of bio-active compounds.

The Jamaica Conservation and Development Trust (JCDT) received a $5.9-million grant for a support project for the Blue and John Crow Mountains National Park which, according to JCDT executive director, Susan Otuokon, is aimed at, among other things, increasing the park’s income by 50 per cent.

In addition, the JCDT received a $3-million grant to develop a new management plan for the park.

The Negril Coral Reef Preservation Society received $5 million as “basic core funding” for the Negril Marine Park for six months, and the Montego Bay Marine Park Trust will use its $5.4-million grant to undertake a 12-month project aimed at improving living coral cover within the Montego Bay Marine Park.

The Walkerswood Community Development Foundation, the Jamaica Environment Trust (JET) and the Dudley Grant Memorial Trust each received grants of $5.5 million, $3.5 million and $5.8 million respectively. The grant to Walkerswood represents part-funding for its development of a wastewater facility, while JET will use its grant in aiding in the collection of PET bottles from selected schools participating in its School’s Environment Programme.

“It will complement the School’s Environment Programme which is implemented in 352 schools across the island,” JET administrator, Carlette Falloon, said. “We hope to be a bridge between what used to happen at Recycle for Life and what will happen when the government establishes a similar programme next year.”

Meanwhile, the Dudley Grant Memorial Trust Grant will be used in a one-year project aimed at “strengthening institutional capacity”.

Eastern Attractions received a $5.7-million grant for a six-month project to restore the Lyssons beach in St Thomas.

According to Ainsley Henriques, his organisation is aimed at correcting the “filthy and unsanitary” conditions that existed at the beach for the last 20 years.

“It’s the only major beach between Kingston’s Cable Hut and Boston in Portland,” he explained. “When the project ends, we promise a fenced, well-landscaped, clean beach with proper sanitary facilities and off-road parking.”

The beach, he said, will cater to families and returning residents.

The EFJ provides funding to NGOs involved in the conservation, management and sustainable use of Jamaica’s natural resources as well as issues of child survival development.