Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), Dr. Richard Van-West Charles said significant progress has been made under his watch since he took office in October 2015. At a press conference held at GWI’s, Vlissengen Road headquarters on Wednesday, the CEO said at the time of his assumption of office, there were a number of issues plaguing the entity in five programmatic areas: organisation and management; water supply and water quality; water distribution and water quality; sanitation; and finance, customer service and debt recovery.
In the area of water supply and water quality, Dr. Van-West Charles said there were, and still remain a number of communities without access to potable water, primarily in the hinterland regions. He said in Greater Georgetown, thousands of residents of ‘D’ Field and ‘E’ Field Sophia will soon receive water through their taps after a very long time. While attributing this accomplishment to the engineers, Dr.Van-West Charles explained that those residents will now be able to access potable water as a result of the rehabilitation of two wells – one situated at Turkeyen and the other at North Ruimveldt.
Additionally, new transmission lines were installed from North Ruimveldt to Sophia and from Turkeyen to Sophia. Though the transmission lines have been connected, the CEO noted that residents were urged not to use the water until they have been disinfected by GWI. “It is always important for us to disinfect the lines before water is distributed to varying households. So we are in the final stages of the disinfection process,” he said.
In the meantime, residents are being supplied with water via water trucks. “Because Sophia is a very large population, and those people have suffered significantly, in the interim we have attempted to distribute water to them because we understand the dilemma with respect to family, with respect to children in the area,” Dr. Van-West Charles posited. In Amerindian Villages such as Karrau in Region Seven, which has had many outbreaks of diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases among residents, systems are being put in place to ensure residents access potable water. “The well is completed, the pump is installed, we are now establishing the trestles for the tanks [and] photovoltaic system,” he pointed out.
To ensure there is equity in access, GWI, the CEO said, the company is working with the Regional Administrations in order to identify the communities that are without potable water. “Many of the health facilities, many of the schools are taking water from rivers, and that water is contaminated. So what we have done in the interim until we can find sustainable solutions, we have begun to purchase some filters that we know work , that removes a 100 per cent of the bacteria, fungi and viruses,” Dr. Van-West Charles stated.
Some of the filters have already been distributed to some schools and hospitals in hinterland locations.
“We have distributed the Jerrycans so that they can use, so that the water that they use is safe. We are looking to provide some larger filters,” he added.
Additionally, the state-run entity is exploring the possibility of drilling more wells across the country. Dr. Van-West Charles said additional wells are needed in La Parfaite Harmonie, Diamond, Sophia, Sparendaam, and Rose Hall among other areas. On this note, he said GWI has been in discussion with the Dutch with the aim of finding a cost-effective method of drilling wells, noting that the current method being used is very costly. In addition to the drilling of new wells, Dr. Van-West-Charles said 18 wells across the coast are in need of repairs. It was explained that the carbon steel casing within these wells are rapidly eroding and such some $200M will be needed to have them replaced. “Some of these wells are just five years old, but because of poor materials which were bought, which were sourced…that these wells are in serious problems.” As the company remedies the situation, the CEO gave the assurance that interim measures would be put in place to ensure that residents in the affected areas have access to water.