THE Ministry of Housing and Water, through the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CH&PA) and Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), has invested $1.23 B in the Sophia areas. Of that sum, CH&PA alone injected $832 M and, in 2004, it had undertaken five major projects that cost $566.7 M, for the roads, drains and structures in Farmers’ Field, Plum Park, Block ‘A’, Block ‘B’, and Block ‘C’, all in Sophia.
That investment saw services being given to in excess of 2,960 house lots, benefitting approximately 9,129 people, a release said.
It reported that Section D’ and Block ‘F’ were upgraded in 2005 with roads, drains and structures to the tune of $51.2M, for the servicing of 510 house lots and delivering benefits to approximately 2,090 people.
In addition, in 2010, the Ministry of Housing and Water spent a further $214M on roads, drains and structures in Section ‘D’ and Area ‘R’, resulting in services being provided to 730 house lots and about 2,990 beneficiaries.
The release said, in all, the total $832M, saw benefits going to 14,210 people and 4,200 house lots, meaning that the Government would have expended $198,095 on every household in the Sophia areas or $58,550 on every individual living there.
GWI made $400M in capital investments within Sophia, with the major interventions comprising construction of a new state-of-the-art iron removal water treatment plant, sinking of a new well at Cummings Lodge and service connection upgrades and metering in Farmers’ Field, Plum Park and Blocks A to D.
The statement said the objective of those expenditures is the improvement of quality and level of service offered to 30,000 residents.
The new Sophia Water Treatment Plant, which was commissioned in 2011, boasts s a modern energy efficient gravity type water treatment technology. It utilises a sodium hypochlorite generation system which aids in the chlorine purification process and is complemented by aerators and lime-dosing systems which facilitates in the adjustment of concentration ions (acidity and alkaline) content, oxidation tanks that facilitate the removal of iron via filtration and backwash lagoons.
This facility successfully serves the population in and around Sophia ‘A’ and ‘B’ fields, Bel Air and Prashad Nagar.
The well in Cummings Lodge, the commissioning of which was done in October 2011, effectively serves residents in ‘E’ to ‘C’ fields, while the ongoing service connection upgrades and metering programme is geared to strengthen and consolidate existing ones and reduce non-revenue water while boosting service levels.
The total intervention within Sophia by GWI equates to a per capita investment of $14,000, the statement explained.