WORLD Wildlife Fund (WWF) Guianas made a $1.7M grant to Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), for groundwater assessment, with the signing of an agreement Thursday, in the donor’s local office on Irving Street, Queenstown, Georgetown.

Director of Capital Investment and Planning, GWI, Mr. Altaf Gafoor (at right) receive an initial sum of $5.67M from WWF Country Manager, Mr. Patrick Williams.

With GWI’s contribution of an additional $4.5M, the purpose is to examine the use of groundwater along the coast and the funding, part of WWF Guianas Freshwater Conservation and Management component, provided from resources secured under WWF’s Guianas Sustainable Natural Resources Management Project 2007-2011, obtained through Dutch Global and Environmental Facilities (DGIS) and WWF Netherlands.

The arrangement will facilitate preliminary assessment of a section of the coastal aquifers within the Demerara Region, entailing field testing to investigate their key properties, such as storage capacity and ability to release water, the quality of which will also be tested to ascertain the levels of heavy metals, chlorides and other substances and glean some insight into occurrence of contamination of the supply.

The execution would also see the development of a database for storage and analysis of data to be collected over time, to enable monitoring of groundwater and any significant impacts to reservoirs along the coast.

The work is projected to take eight months and includes participation by the University of Guyana (UG) Faculty of Technology.

WWF Guianas Freshwater/Protected Areas Officer, Ms. Aiesha Williams noted that groundwater is very important for domestic and commercial use in Guyana.

“It is about 80 per cent of the water supply that GWI provides along the coast, so the assessment is preliminary and it looks at assessing the physical properties of groundwater reservoirs and at some water quality, in terms of contamination from chlorides or any other contaminants,” she explained.

Williams said, at the end of the undertaking, a database would be developed on the properties of the reservoirs and the groundwater itself.

She said the database would help them to manage all the information collected, so far, and in the future.

“So that it will help us to understand the changes that are occurring within the reservoirs, and help us to better manage our use of the groundwater,” Williams said.

REMINDED
Country Manager of WWF, Dr. Patrick Williams reminded that the project is part of the larger freshwater programme covering not only groundwater but surface water, as well.

“Because you may know that a large part of our water, especially for example, in Georgetown, comes from the East Demerara Water Conservancy. So, we are also concerned not only about groundwater but surface water,” he pointed out.

Williams said similar issues, such as contamination, is looked at, together with those relating to climate change and how it might affect both surface and groundwater.

“We have a much broader perspective on freshwater conservation and management. This is just one part of what we are doing at the moment,” he elaborated.

GWI Director, Capital Investment and Planning, Mr. Altaf Gafoor said a quick assessment is going to be done of what physical changes will have occurred in the groundwater reservoirs.

“It is very important that we pay close attention to whatever changes are occurring on the actual resource,” he said, emphasising that groundwater is one of the most abundant resources but must not be taken for granted.

Gafoor said the existing knowledge on the subject has been reviewed and, very soon, actual activities will commence.

“Hopefully, in another six to eight months, we will have the final results and that will feed into a national strategy. It is also important that we understand that what we are doing here is not going to answer all the questions. It is the first step in answering some of the questions,” he clarified.

However, Gafoor said, with the knowledge gathered, GWI will be able to better focus its resources into areas where they are really needed.

“It is groundbreaking that it is addressing the issues we see and it is going to feed into our national strategy and, in turn, guide how we go about dealing with whatever problems we identify in the medium and long term,” he offered.

According to the WWF, groundwater contributes to about 80 percent of coastal water supply for domestic, industrial and other commercial purposes and proper investigation of the status of the groundwater reservoirs is necessary to clarify whether present water extraction rates are sustainable and increasing demand for water and the potential impacts from climate change may have further detrimental impacts on the coastal aquifers.

This partnership between WWF and GWI is expected to help them understand the sustainability of groundwater reservoirs and identify any threats to the aquifers functioning as a source of safe public supply in the long term.

The grant agreement not only presents an opportunity for WWF to directly promote conservation of natural resources but also contribute to maintaining a healthy water supply, which is a vital resource for all Guyanese, the agency said.