Water Sector to benefit from improved access, quality
– Minister Ali
THE local Water Sector is set to witness yet another five years of growth and expansion, as even more persons are expected to benefit from improved access and quality, Minister with the portfolio, Mr. Irfaan Ali boasted last week.
Speaking in between meetings he and colleague Dr. Leslie Ramsammy were having with farmers at Parika, East Bank Essequibo, Ali told the Guyana Chronicle that, over the last 12 years, the government has invested in excess of $15 billion in the Water Sector, which has contributed to the provision of safe, potable water to 98 percent of the population.
He said there will be even more investment to ensure that all citizens, regardless of their geographic location, get the natural resource, through specifically designed programmes.
In this regard, Ali announced that, in the future, more treatment plants and wells will be designed in such a way to use less energy and more alternative sources of it.
He said, 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 cost more than $2 billion and Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) will also strive to complete the drilling of, in excess of 20, new boreholes that would see some 60,000 people benefitting from new service connections.
“There are also plans to expand and increase access to treated water, as such, the management of GWI has been tasked to find a robust, sustainable solution for having  treated water in the system, or to substantially reduce the iron content in all areas,” Minister  Ali disclosed.
He said another vital project to be realised is to have the Integrated Water Resource Management system fully implemented.
Minister Ali maintained that all the investments are geared towards improving the quality of water produced for the population, in keeping with the GWI mandate.
This includes those communities in the hinterland and, with that in mind, through government intervention, GWI has drilled approximately 50 new wells there for the benefit of about 55,000 people, he said.
Ali recalled that, over the last five years, an additional investment, by GWI, of in excess of $400M was to rehabilitate the Georgetown sewer system.
He said, of the 24 stations that exist, 15 have been fully rehabilitated to include the installations of new pumps to facilitate improvements.
“This has resulted in the improvement of the sanitation service provided to the residents of Georgetown and, automatically, result in the reduction of diseases related to poor sanitation,” Ali posited.