Latest update March 26th, 2025 6:54 AM
Mar 07, 2009 News
The contractor behind last Tuesday’s shallow well fiasco at Grove New Scheme, East Bank Demerara, says he is willing to comply with the regulations spelled out by the Hydrometeorological Service.
But he alleged that he drilled the well without authorisation because of the long wait that engineers have to endure before being given a permit.
The contractor and another shallow well engineer alleged on Thursday that several months would elapse before Hydromet officials gave them the go-ahead to drill.
“If someone is drilling a shallow well for cattle and has to get permission from the Hydromet Service, the cattle will die before the permission is granted,” one of the engineers alleged.
After Tuesday’s eruption, the Hydromet Service noted that under the Water and Sewerage Act of 2002 a Drilling Permit and licence to extract water must be obtained from the Hydrometeorological Service, Ministry of Agriculture before the construction, modification or abandonment of any well.
Before drilling, persons have to apply and provide documentation showing that the Guyana Water Inc. is unable to supply the water for which the well is being drilled.
Officials warned that persons who do not comply with regulations can be fined a maximum of ninety thousand dollars and imprisonment for one year.
But the contractor and his colleague claimed that they are unfamiliar with many of the regulations spelled out by the Hydromet Service.
They suggested that the officials meet with all the shallow-well drillers who are willing to pay for licences to drill.
The contractor who was installing the well at Grove said that he has drilled “over a million wells” in Guyana without a similar incident.
He described the incident as “God’s work”, and claimed that he could not have known that gases were trapped in the same area where he was drilling.
Residents in the Grove New Scheme also suggested that the home-owner was attempting to instal the private well because of the unreliable supply and poor quality of potable water in the community.
An engineer from the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC) told Kaieteur News on Thursday that the still-unidentified gas that caused the eruption could pose a risk to nearby residents.
GGMC officials have ordered the contractor to cordon off the area while attempts are being made to identify the gas.
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