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Water safety plan for Linden

Apr 21, 2009 News

– Pilot Initiative to be handed over tomorrow

The Government of Guyana, through the Ministry of Health will tomorrow morning hand over a Pilot Initiative for the joint development of a Programme of Action for the Minimization of Land-based Sources of Pollution and a Water Safety Plan for the mining town of Linden.
Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy will be giving the feature address at the exercise, which will be held at the Linden Economic Advancement Programme (LEAP) building in Linden.
The initiative is intended to demonstrate implementation of a holistic approach aimed at addressing the key issues of watershed management and its linkage to drinking water quality.  The watershed management element of this pilot initiative was formulated within the Global Programme of Action (GPA) for the Protection of the Marine Environment from Land-Based Sources (LBS) of Pollution.
It is a global agreement committed to by governments worldwide to improve the health of coastal and marine waters. Watersheds that drain the areas within and around Linden constituted the study area for development of a local-level National Plan of Action (NPA) to minimize pollution into the ambient environment, with emphasis on protection of source waters used for drinking water supply.
A press statement from the Minister of Health stated that the water supply protection element was designed within the Water Safety Plan (WSP) framework as recommended under Chapter 4 of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Guidelines for Drinking Water Quality 3rd Edition (2004).
A Water Safety Plan is a methodology developed by the WHO to assist water utilities improve and maintain water quality consumers. It was noted that it provides a comprehensive risk assessment and risk management approach that includes all steps in the water supply chain – from catchment to consumer.
The Linden NPA development process was a collaborative one with local stakeholders, which led to the identification of thirty distinct pollution contributors (hazards) within the study area. According to the statement, in consultation with stakeholders, a prioritisation ranking was assigned to the hazards in the context of ease of implementation of remedial/control measures.  Some ninety-six control measures designed to respond to these pollution threats were articulated under the Plan of Action.
The NPA also specified the outputs, targets and indicators associated with the various recommended control measures, the lead responsible agencies and approximate timeframes for implementation.
Recommendations were also made related to land zoning considerations, with respect to reducing threats to water supply sources. Given the complexity and multitude of recommended management interventions, costing and cost-benefit analyses were not undertaken.
However, a recommended approach to analyzing cost-benefits was presented in the study, based on a UNDP Toolkit for environmental resource economics for sustainable land resources management.
The WSP focuses on determining the exact processes for each plant and documenting in detail the processes through flow charts. The entire operation was examined and water quality records for the raw water, water throughout the process, treated water, distributed water and water at consumers’ premises were found, analyzed and documented in great detail.
Based on these records, together with a number of site visits and stakeholder consultations in Linden, an account was given of the operational challenges at the treatment plants, distribution system and issues related to household practices, data recording, feedback, consumer awareness and monitoring systems.
Through extensive stakeholder consultations, a suite of technical solutions, along with requisite procedural and monitoring activities were recommended for implementation to ensure that finished drinking water quality meets the health guidelines as recommended by the WHO standards which Guyana aspires to achieve.
It is expected that this joint demonstration NPA/WSP project will build local, national and regional capacity and will catalyze the development of similar projects elsewhere in Guyana and throughout the Latin American and Caribbean region.

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