THE Guyana Hydrometeorological (Hydromet) Service will soon be expanding its testing capabilities to better monitor and collect data from the country’s water ways.
This was disclosed on Sunday by the Chief Hydromet Officer, Garvin Cummings, during the Ministry of Agriculture’s Special Report programme. Cummings explained that the hydrometeorological service has a wide range of responsibilities, one of which has to do with the collection and archiving of water quality data.
He highlighted that the mandate of the hydromet service is to collect historical data on the components of the country’s different water ways.
“There is no institution in Guyana that has historical data for the country, so essentially what the hydrometeorological service mandate has to do is collect data for all of Guyana, essentially generating a baseline data for all of the country.”
To fulfill its mandate in 2019, the country’s first Water Quality Laboratory was commissioned, providing a facility with all the necessary equipment to carry out physical chemical test on bodies of water.
“The work of the lab is to essentially collect water quality data from all across Guyana and to analyze that data and create information for public consumption,” Cummings said, adding: “The water quality laboratory, even though small, was designed to essentially start with a very basic type of water quality monitoring and then to expand into a more complex type of water monitoring.”
He noted that the goal now is for the hydromet service to advance its testing capabilities to welcome biological testing of water quality in Guyana.
“We can do water quality testing in terms of temperatures, conductivity, suspended solids, the more simpler type of hydromet service. As the lab grows and matures, we are looking to expand the range of hydrometeorological service that we can test for,” the Chief Hydromet Officer said, adding: “Indeed, every year the government of Guyana is making incremental investments into the water quality lab so that we can get to the point where a wide suite of parameters can be tested for.”
Explaining further, Hydro-chemist, Felisha Persaud, who also appeared on the programme said, “We have the capacity at this very moment to test for a few parameters, mostly potential of hydrogen (PH), temperature, conductivity, turgidity, saliency, iron, phosphorus, nitrate, nitrite, chlorine, bio- chemical oxygen and nitrogen ammonia.”
Persaud stated that, with the introduction of biological testing, the lab will be outfitted with new equipment which will allow scientists and chemists to detect a wider range of chemicals and heavy metals in water.
“We are also on the verge of expanding our testing capabilities; at this very moment we are procuring a piece of equipment, the atomic observance spectrum, to test for heavy metals such as mercury, cyanide and lead,” Persaud said.
