NO cracks were visible in or around the 50-metre international size swim pool at the National Aquatic Centre as was reported in other sections of the media last week.Members of the media were taken on a tour of the facility yesterday, where they had a first hand look at the pool and a report on the progress of the works on the 25-metre warm up pool and there was no evidence of any damage being done due to the construction of the warm up pool as was reported by other media houses.
Speaking to members of the media, yesterday, Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport Steve Ninvalle said his ministry is very open with regards information concerning the construction of the various facilities they are currently undertaking, such as the synthetic at Leonora, West Coast Demerara and now the Aquatic Centre.
Ninvalle said, should journalists need information on what is going on his ministry is very open and they (journalists) can access the information and not write what is not true.
He was responding to an article that appeared in another section of the media last Sunday which stated that due to the construction of the warm up pool, the piles driven for the foundation caused damage to be done to the 50-metre pool which is already completed.
Ninvalle said the photographs that appeared with the article are very old photographs. This type of journalism he said is very poor and leaves much to be desired.
Director of Sport Neil Kumar said he is very upset with the article and, like Ninvalle, said his office is open and persons can either call him by phone or visit if they want information.
Kumar said he never thought the Government could have achieved what it has achieved for sports right now.
With regards to the works done so far on the warm up pool, managing director of Innovative Engineering Consultancy Services Deoraj Dalchand said the foundation is 100 percent complete and the 28-day curing period has passed.
He said they are now waiting on personnel from Myrtha Pools to arrive in Guyana to install the pre-fabricated walls and while Myrtha Pools is doing this, his company will work simultaneously with them to do the decking for the facility, and this should take approximately three weeks from the time they start this phase to complete their part of the work.
Another part of the article that ministry officials are peeved with is the paragraph which stated that the pool cost over $600M. This an official said is very untrue, since the money spent on the pool so far is for construction of the pool which is one phase, construction of bleachers (another phase) landscaping (another phase) “look, the money spent were for different phases of the Centre” the official declared.