-Two new state-of-the-art water treatment plants for Linden
THE last five years has been a dynamic period for the water sector, and has seen tremendous improvement and expansion, and the next five years holds even greater improvement as the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) takes its services to another level.
Housing and Water Minister, Irfaan Ali made this declaration last Friday, while addressing the gathering at the commissioning ceremony for the new Cummings Lodge Well Station.
According to Ali, the focus of GWI is to  effectively and efficiently utilise technology that is “biased towards environmental sensitivities”,  this means that, in the future, there will be more  treatment plants, more wells designed in such a way that it will use less energy, and the utilisation  of more alternative  sources  of energy.
“This is an important issue for GWI, as more than 60 percent of the operational cost goes towards energy consumption. This is our focus for the future,” he said.
Alluding to the projects to be implemented which will help to realize this goal, he announced that within the next five years, there are plans to construct two new state-of-the-art, environmentally friendly, water treatment plants in Linden, which will be an investment of more than $2B.
In addition to this, $2B will also be invested for rehabilitation works to the Georgetown Sewer System, Ali said.
“This is another very important area… all the plans announced are ones that have already been designed or are in the pipeline to be implemented,” Ali stated.
Over the next five years, GWI will also strive to complete the drilling of in excess of 20 new bore holes which will see more than 60,000 persons benefiting from new service connections.
There are also plans to expand and increase access to treated water, as such, the management at GWI has been tasked to find a robust, sustainable solution to have treated water in the system, or  to  substantially reduce the iron content in the water in all areas, Ali added.
He explained: “One of the major difficulties, is that water that is available in the aquifers of Guyana are rich in iron content, though not dangerous to health, we need to improve on this. We have to set high standards and to deliver to our customers, a continuously improved product.”
The Housing and Water Minister also pointed out that another vital project to be realised is to have the Integrated Water Resource Management system fully implemented in Guyana.
Challenges
Ali acknowledged that while we have an abundant water supply in Guyana, the cost of making the water fit for consumption is a very expensive one.
In this regard, he urged all citizens to adopt conservation methods to preserve and conserve the commodity, to ensure that the water sector remains sustainable for the benefit of generations to come.
He said, “That is where the challenge lies, conservation needs to be paramount, persons have developed a culture of waste, neglect and irresponsibility. Part of the programme in the future must be to change the culture, to educate our population and to inculcate in the future generation of Guyanese, the importance of conserving, safeguarding and not wasting this very important commodity.”