Gov’t to construct 19 more water treatment plants

The government is actively sourcing funding for the construction of 19 more water treatment plants across Guyana in an effort to provide 90% access to treated water by the year 2025 in accordance with the standards of the World Health Organization (WHO).

As per WHO standards, a country’s water supply is to contain 0.3 milligrams per litres of iron content or less but Guyana is far from this.

“The biggest complaint was not access to water but it was the quality and so now, what we have to do is, we have to construct roughly about 19 treatment plants in the country to be able to move the amount of treated water coverage from 52% where it is now, to 90%, where we want to be at the end of our first term,” Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues told the News Room during an interview on Friday.

“And this calls for a capital investment of about US$100 million so it is a lot but we are committed to that and we are actively trying to garner the funding for that project,” Minister Rodrigues added.

The new plants will add to the 27 already in place.

In the interim, the Housing Ministry and the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) have been conducting maintenance works on the existing treatment plants across the country.

Already, enhancements were made to the treatment plant at Eccles, Covent Garden, and Grove on the East Bank of Demerara as for the past three years, those treatment plants have not been working at full capacity.

It was explained that raw water was flowing through the plants because the chemical used to treat the water, known as ‘sequest’ was discontinued due to its high cost of procurement.

But since GWI has started flushing the wells, there has been a decline in complaints about the water quality. The company also began working to improve water quality at the wells in the Essequibo Islands and in Linden, Region 10.