Latest update April 19th, 2024 12:59 AM
Jun 06, 2009 News
Some $40M has been approved for the procurement of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and Ductile Iron pipes, fittings for the sewerage pumping stations in Central Georgetown.
This was announced on Thursday by Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon. The amount was approved by Cabinet on Tuesday last, on the heels of a series of articles published in this newspaper highlighting the pitiful state of the sewerage.
A source at the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) had told this newspaper that the failure to upgrade the sewerage system over the years, has not only left the water entity with a collapsing mess, but also with the challenge of urgently meeting modern specifications in order to reverse the current state-of-affairs. On Wednesday, Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali, told this newspaper that the GWI teams are doing everything that is ‘humanly, engineeringly and technically possible, to ensure that the sewerage system remains functional.
The Minister’s comment came in response to this newspaper’s question about the lifespan of the eight pumps that are currently supporting the system.
He said that while GWI is still awaiting the completion of the tendering process for the supply of 24 pumps for the system, technical teams are working around the clock to ensure that those in operation continue to work well.
Minister Ali pointed out that the system provides service to about 50,000 residents in the area bounded by the Demerara River in the West, Vlissengen Road in the East, the Atlantic Ocean in the North and Sussex Street in the South. Ali said that the system also provides service from a satellite network in Tucville, which benefits a further 4,000 residents.
Accordingly, the system is interconnected with the Tucville waste site via a trunk main, which originates at the Tucville Septage receiving facility, and terminates at the junction of Brickdam and Boyle Place.
Bringing emphasis to the challenge faced to maintain the system, Ali said that the network was constructed in the early 1900s, and was originally designed to serve a mere 10,000 residents, but today serves in excess of 50,000. And in an attempt to shed light on the genesis of the breakdown of the system, the Minister divulged that no investment was placed in the system while it was being controlled by the city entity.
It was highlighted in the recently released PAHO/WHO-produced 2008 Strategic Plan for the sanitation sector in Guyana, that the central sewage system is in imminent danger of total collapse.
The strategic plan points out that since its inception, only one major rehabilitation of the sewerage system occurred, during the period 1985–1988, adding that pumps began to fail a short while after that, leaving again eight operational.
The eight, it was noted, require constant maintenance to remain functional.
The document seeks to emphasise the problems and the major constraints experienced in maintaining the system, and underscores that the situation could result in the outbreak of communicable diseases, inclusive of cholera.
The document also highlights that it was some 10 years ago that a master plan intended for the regularisation of squatter areas within the city was prepared by consultants with the intent of addressing the sewerage system. ‘
However, it was not approved by government, thus, resulting in a large number of pit latrines being built in various areas around the periphery of Georgetown, contrary to the regulations of the city.
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