THE recent rehabilitation of a well at Red Village, Onderneeming, Essequibo Coast, has resulted in residents receiving water for the first time in 18 months.

During a visit to Region Two by GWI’s Chief Executive Officer, Shaik Baksh and a technical team, residents expressed their gratitude and satisfaction with the water supply they are now receiving, noting that it is a major relief following the hardships they endured for close to two years.
According to engineers in the region, the well was dormant and needed cleaning and re-sleeving, as part of the rehabilitation works.

Baksh was at the time assessing the water supply situation on the Essequibo Coast, with a view to addressing residents’ concerns. He visited the Warousi, Cullen and Onderneeming One and Two well stations, as well as the Lima water treatment plant.

An overall assessment has revealed that access to water supply was fairly satisfactory across the coast, with the main issue being high iron content. Baksh noted that the chemical used to treat the iron has not given satisfactory results.

As such, with funding being made available from the Caribbean Development Bank, plans are being expedited for the construction of a new water treatment plant that will serve residents from Walton Hall to Charity.

Additionally, customers served by individual well stations will immediately benefit from more frequent flushing of the pipelines, while in-line filtration is being looked at as a long- term solution to tackle the high iron content.
Baksh also visited the island of Wakenaam, Region Three, which will soon benefit from increased water supply as works have already begun to resuscitate an abandoned well, a release from GWI said.

The island has been experiencing a poor level of water supply for the past two to three years.
This below-par service was attributed to low water production at the Free and Easy and Noitegedacht well stations. A GWI team is already on the island to clean and rehabilitate the wells to increase production.

The well being rehabilitated, which was privately-owned and became dormant, is situated in Caledonia. However, permission was given for GWI to take up possession of the well.

Plans for Wakenaam include the drilling of a new well, as well as the treatment of the water for the high iron content.
Over at Zeelugt North, Tuschen East and West and Parika Road, GWI will be reviewing the water distribution system to bring relief to the population there after receiving reports of poor level of service.

On September 25, the CEO, regional chairman and a technical team from GWI visited a number of Region Three communities to assess the water situation.

An analysis of the network is currently being undertaken with the aim of improving the production capacity of wells and the Vergenogen water treatment plant, as well as re-aligning the water distribution system.