MINISTER of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, along with Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) Managing Director, Dr. Richard Van-West Charles and a team yesterday visited the two water treatment plants currently under construction at Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara, and Diamond, East Bank Demerara.

These visits followed a visit, on Friday, to the water treatment plant in Sheet Anchor, East Canje, Berbice. The Uitvlugt facility is some 25 per cent complete, while over at Diamond, the project is 27 per cent complete.

The three plants, on which construction began earlier this year, are part of a $3 billion project to improve the quality of potable water across the country, with over 50,000 residents expected to benefit from the three facilities.

The Uitvlugt facility is expected to service some 21,550 residents; covering 15 villages from De Kinderen to Cornelia Ida.

GWI Regional Manager, Denise Woolford, pointed out that once the plant goes into operation, it would mean that the entire West Coast area, from Vreed-en-Hoop to De Kinderen, will be receiving treated water.

“The project is expected to improve GWI’s service in the region in two aspects, one – the level of service, and two – the quality of water that customers will now receive. Currently customers receive water directly from the source, which means that the iron content is as natural as it gets. Once the treatment plant comes on stream customers will receive an iron content that aligns with the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) standard,” Woolford explained.

This treatment plant would be the fourth on the West Coast, as there are already treatment plants in Pouderoyen, Fellowship and Vergenoegen.

The plant is designed for a capacity of 10 million litres per day.

Thus far at the Uitvlugt facility the fence is already completed, while works are ongoing on the sedimentation tank, the filters, the ground storage tanks and administration building.

At Diamond the fencing is considered 50 per cent complete, while works are also ongoing on the sedimentation tanks, filters, ground storage tanks and administration building. The Diamond treatment plant is expected to serve 23,266 residents stretching from Herstelling to Great Diamond.

According to Project Manager Richard Persaud, it is expected that the concrete works at both sites would be completed by the end of this year and mechanical works can begin. The plants are expected to be completed by the latter half of 2019.