THE Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) has identified another two schools in the city in need of urgent cleaning, as it continues to test and monitor the quality of the water available in schools countrywide.
The schools to be tackled next are, Alexander Village Nursery and Precious Jewel Nursery, a release stated.
While these locations require urgent attention, it is important to reiterate that routine cleaning of the water tanks at all school locations is recommended to prevent any growth of pathogenic organisms. During a recent meeting with Ministry of Education officials, it was decided that all tanks must be cleaned twice a year.
As a result, the Ministry of Education has since commenced the cleaning of water tanks at some schools. The work is being supervised by engineers from the Ministry and GWI’s Head of Water Quality, Deon Anderson.
Subsequent to the cleaning of the tanks, they were sanitised with calcium hypochlorite to eradicate any residual microbial growth and water samples were taken from the tanks and tested to determine the effectiveness of the cleaning.
Meanwhile, the ‘C’ Field Sophia Nursery was cleaned unsupervised prior to the re-opening of the school, but water samples were subsequently taken to compare the effectiveness of the supervised versus the unsupervised cleaning.
It was found that at the two schools where the cleaning was supervised, the water quality results were free of E. coli., while in the case of ‘C’-Field Sophia Nursery, where unsupervised cleaning was conducted with no subsequent disinfection, the results yielded a high number of E.Coli (10 coliforms per 100ml).
As a consequence it was determined that the tanks at ‘C’- Field Sophia Nursery need further cleaning and or disinfection. GWI has therefore recommended that all cleaning exercises of water tanks at schools to be done under supervision.
Based on the list provided by the Ministry of Education, there are 29 Primary and 32 Nursery schools in the City. To date, the water quality has been monitored at all nursery and primary schools in Georgetown.
In addition, testing of the water quality has also been extensively carried out in Linden, Region 10, where 16 Nursery schools and eight Primary schools have been monitored.
It was noted that the schools where significant contamination has been detected in the tanks, and urgent cleaning is required, are Christianburg Nursery, Children’s Garden Nursery, Republic Avenue Nursery, Burnham Drive Nursery, Watooka Day Nursery, Watooka Day Primary and Linden Centre for Disabled Children.
GWI’s Water Quality Department will continue to monitor the various locations on a monthly basis, covering all the schools countrywide, and in collaboration with the Ministry of Education will ensure that excellent water quality is maintained even after storage in school tanks.
“The water quality results will continue to be shared with the relevant authorities within the Ministry of Education, so that interventions can be done in a timely manner, thus ensuring adequate and safe potable water supply to our nation’s children,” the release added.
