A new water treatment plant under construction in Uitvlugt, West Coast
Demerara will see residents from Cornelia Ida to De Kinderen receiving
10Million Litres of treated water per day when it is completed next
year.
Today, Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan, representatives from
the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the Guyana Water
Incorporated (GWI) and the Ministry of Finance visited the project
sites to assess the progress of construction of the new water
treatment plants in Uitvlugt and Diamond, East Bank Demerara.
The water treatment plants are components of a larger project for
which a more than $6.6Million (US$31.6Million) loan was signed in 2014
by the Government of Guyana (GOG) and the IDB, for a Water Supply and
Sanitation Infrastructure Improvement Programme.
Arshad Yacoub, Programme Manager of GWI, told the team that some
21,550 members of the population will be served when the treatment
plants come into operation. As part of the project, GWI is in the
process of installing meters in communities to be serviced.
To date, more than 3,000 meters have been installed with 125 septic
tanks scheduled for installation in November.
Consultant and Project Manager of Hyroplan, Richard Persaud, told the
visiting team works are on schedule despite only being 25 percent
complete. Works are ongoing on the sedimentation tank, the filters,
the ground storage tanks and the Administration building.
Meanwhile, in Diamond, Yacoub explained that the new water treatment
plant will service some 23,266 people from Herstelling to Great
Diamond with 12Million Litres of treated water per day.
GWI has already installed more than 3,500 meters in this area and 91
septic tanks are scheduled for installation in November. The Diamond
water treatment plant is on schedule to be completed by next year,
Persaud said. Works are 27 percent completed.
Residents can also expect improvement in service when the plants
become operational in late 2018, Yacoub noted.
The four components of the overall project are the construction of new
water treatment plants at Sheet Anchor, East Coast Berbice, Diamond,
East Bank Demerara and Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara, rehabilitation
and expansion of the Shelter Belt water treatment plant; reducing
non-revenue water losses through metering and establishment of
district meter zones in the programme areas; institutional
strengthening of GWI and conversion of existing pit latrines to septic
tanks for 1,000 beneficiaries.
