The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) will soon receive a loan of US$17M from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to improve the water supply across the country.
Managing Director of GWI, Dr Richard Van West Charles made the disclosure on Thursday at the company’s headquarters.
“In the pipeline is a possible loan from the Caribbean Development Bank and with some research we have concluded with some inline filters… those filters will clean the water up and all of the water produced will be in total compliance with WHO standards… so that will significant improve the system …the expected loan would’ve been about US $17M…It is in process, the terms of reference presently is being prepared”, Managing Director revealed.
With the investment in the inline filters, Guyanese can expect to benefit from clear none contaminated water.
According to Van West Charles, the investment will see the elimination of iron and hydrosulfide which presently contaminates our waterways.
“We are all compliant with respect to microbiology, the absence of microorganisms except if they are breakages in the distribution system but respect to iron and hydrosulfide, these filters which we have tested will change the whole system completely and we hope that our country will be free of all of the red stains, staining of propylene, staining of tiles etc.”
Though Government have singed unto the Sustainable Development Goals which speaks to access to all member of the population by the year 2030, the GWI head is pushing for an earlier goal.
“We are hoping that we can move this to 2025, we want to ensure that all schools, all health facilities across the country have access to potable water. So this is part of the drive, in certain areas where the President speaks to of the inequities, the hinterland regions between the hinterland and the coastal regions, we have to ensure that those populations also have access so what we collect, we don’t collect from everyone on a timely basis, so we have to ensure that we manage the resources efficiently so that we can begin to expand the system so that people across the country could get equal access” Van West Charles explained to media operatives.
Presently, a Diamond Water Treatment Plant, East Bank Demerara (EBD) is being completed and is said to be over 75 percent completed.
The Diamond Water Treatment Plant is part of three similar plants, the others being in Regions 3 and 6, that is made possible through the partnership and collaboration between the Government of Guyana, IDB, and the European Union.
Their construction/installation has a total cost of $7Billion. Constructions works for all three water treatment plants are scheduled to conclude in December 2020.
