Latest update April 26th, 2024 12:59 AM
Oct 19, 2012 News
Measures to improve the local water system have seen approximately $4 billion being pumped into the Region Four water distribution system over the course of the past six years. A sum of more than $2.6 billion was directed to Georgetown alone, while another $1.4 billion facilitated improvement to the systems on the East Coast and East Bank of Demerara.
This disclosure was made earlier this week by Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali who speculated that “many persons might ask why we are linking the East Coast and East Bank with Georgetown. But part of the integrated water resource management system itself is to have the entire water distribution of Guyana interlinked in one common network that would support each other in different times of stress and hardship at different locations”.
He pointed to the need to look closely at the potential that exists in reducing the cost of energy that contributes to the escalation of the operational cost at the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI). Among the possibilities he highlighted was that of hydro, which according to him, is set to become a reality very soon.
He made reference to a study which was conducted on the highway that “…sought to capture the water resource that we have there and gravity-feed it down into the East Bank water network system.”
“So we are going to add capacity to our research and development arm at GWI to relook at the geographic makeup and natural characteristics of our own system here to see how we can better capture those advantages in reducing the cost of the delivery of water,” Ali said.
According to the Minister, it is not the desire of the administration to leave a legacy where 50 years on there is no blueprint for the water distribution facilities, including the sewerage system.
It is for this reason, he said, that a proposed US$10M overhaul of the existing sewerage system will entail the creation of a computerised modelling of the current system. This move, he explained, is to ensure that new employees could become acquainted relatively quickly with the system.
“If we employ two new persons today, we can take them through the computerised modelling system and they will come up to speed with the design, layout, capacity and engineering functionality of the system we are developing to deliver to the people.”
With financing from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the project will cater to a significant enhancement of the Georgetown sanitation system. The works consist of rehabilitation of the Central Georgetown sewerage system, including completion of pumping stations refurbishment.
However, at the moment there are some possible constraints to the project which were highlighted by GWI’s Acting Project Manager, Mr Orin Browne. He linked the possible constraints to fragile sewer pipes, damage to both Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company and Guyana Power and Light utility cables; breakage of water mains; difficulty in finding exact locations of existing sewer mains; narrow streets and roads within project areas and damage to bridges and entrances.
The proposed project, which was endorsed yesterday at an Alliance For Change press conference, is aimed at improving the operational performance of the Georgetown sewerage system, through the reconstruction of its most critical components. This will include the complete replacement of the 5.5 km sewerage ring main and will serve to strengthen GWI’s operational and financial performance by improving asset management and decreasing energy consumption.
The works, once completed, will also limit the transmission of the water-related diseases lymphatic filariasis and intestinal helminthiasis, through Mass Drug Administration activities, according to Browne.
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