Natural gas eruption under control

— as efforts begin to trap the gas from the well

THE natural gas eruption at a Diamond, East Bank Demerara home on Thursday evening has been brought under control and an inter-agency team is working to trap the gas so that the lives of nearby residents can return to normalcy.

On the legal side of things, the Neighbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) is looking at its options, given the activity the resident was involved in and the damage to private property in the process.

Chairman Bharat Narine, when contacted, told Guyana Chronicle that the council was not informed about the drilling of the water well and during a visit to the location on Friday and Saturday, many residents say they too were not aware of the drilling.
However, those who knew of it said they were of the view that the homeowner was putting down a reservoir to store water.

Narine said from the information of the depth drilled, it could not have been to facilitate a reservoir. He also explained that when questioned, the homeowner maintained that the drilling was to build a reservoir.
The NDC chairman said an emergency NDC team has been setup and will investigate who the resident consulted with before drilling the well.

He pointed out that based on the information the council received, the man was in the business of selling bulk water to persons in the construction business.
He could not say if the water the man sold was coming from the GWI mains or if it was stored rain water, but whenever persons involved in construction needed water, the man would ferry filled 400 and 1600 gallons black water tanks to their construction sites.

Narine said the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) would be contacted tomorrow to ascertain whether they approved the economic activity on the premises where the eruption occurred.
The eruption has caused some amount of damage to properties nearby.

Head of the Guyana Civil Defense Commission, Colonel Kester Craig, told Guyana Chronicle that work has begun to trap the gas steaming out from the eruption.
An immediate bugbear to the process is the amount of slush deposited on the premises where the eruption happened.
The system to trap the gas will be similar to the one employed at Second Bridge, Diamond, where a similar gas explosion took place nine years ago.

In that instance, the family had been able to use the gas for cooking but it is unclear if the same thing would be done for this family.
Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Water Inc. Dr. Richard Van-West Charles, when contacted on Saturday, told this publication that while the water company is not the one that gives permission for the drilling of wells, there should be some level of communication with the GWI before persons seek to explore underground water sources.

“I am not sure what quality of water he was expecting to get, our wells go to 900 feet deep,” Charles explained

He said that it was only two months ago while a Dutch firm was drilling to build a well at Diamond, the team of engineers discovered an aquifer 150 feet below the earth’s surface.
An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing rock. Water-bearing rocks are permeable, meaning, that they have openings that liquids and gas can pass through.

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