SOME $800M will be invested on boreholes, this year, for the benefit of thousands of people, as the Government continues to provide better services to enhance lives of the population.
Twenty-two are earmarked, Minister of Housing and Water, Mr. Irfaan Ali made the disclosure, recently, when updating the Guyana Chronicle on the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) programme. “As outlined, in our work programme for 2010, particular focus is earmarked on the replacement and expansion of boreholes in critical areas of population and commercial growth and infrastructure and commercial growth,” he informed.
He said the boreholes at Lusignan, East Coast Demerara and Amelia’s Ward, in Linden, have both been completed and commissioned. One at Hague, West Coast Demerara is, substantially, complete and scheduled for commissioning next month.
Ali said commission ceremonies at Charity, on Essequibo Coast and Parfait Harmonie, West Bank Demerara, are  expected to take place July month end.
Contacts for Canefield, East Canje, Berbice; Mon Repos, also on East Coast Demerara; Tabatinga, in Rupununi; Manchester, at Corentyne, Berbice, too, as well as Enmore, another East Coast Demerara place, have all been awarded and are slated for completion by August month end, he said.
Additionally, the Belle Vue, West Bank Demerara and Cummings Lodge and De Hoop, both on East Coast Demerara, are all ongoing projects scheduled to be finished during the third quarter of this year.
Ali said designs for Goed Fortuin, West Bank Demerara and Wakenaam, in Region Three (West Demerara/Essequibo islands) have been done and are to be put to tender in the last quarter of 2010.
He said, in the meantime, the Wakenaam system is being supplemented by the recommissioning of the Noitgedacht well, on the same island, which was out of operation but rehabilitation on  which would be finished soon.
Ali disclosed that works on wells at Lima, Cotton Tree and Good Hope, all on Essequibo Coast, are expected to start anytime now.
He said the series of undertakings would benefit at least 250,000 people, by replacing, expanding and rehabilitating boreholes.
Ali said GWI is aware that people at Land of Canaan, on East Bank Demerara, have not been receiving adequate service and has conducted a camera inspection of the well there, in an effort to recommission it into the supply network.
He said the exercise revealed several obstacles and reiterated calls for residents in the various communities to protect the infrastructure and ensure they do not contribute to damaging it.
Ali said GWI will now have to clear that well and facilitate further investigation to identify defects and fix them accordingly but a contract for the rehabilitation of all the wells on East Bank Demerara has already been awarded.
He said it is hoped that upon completion of the Noitgedacht well, in three weeks time, rehabilitation can commence at Land of Canaan well, and, on completion of those jobs, benefits will accrue to Land of Canaan and two other villages, including Garden of Eden.