Sewage system on verge of collapse due to neglect

May 23, 2009 News

Failure to upgrade the sewage system over the years has not only left the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) with a collapsing mess but also with the challenge of urgently meeting modern specifications in order to reverse the current state-of-affairs.

This notion was highlighted recently by a source close to the water entity.

According to the source, a trend that saw the neglect of the system, started even when the water entity was being controlled by the Georgetown municipality through the Guyana Sewerage and Water Company (GS&WC).

Even at the 1929 commissioning of the central sewage system it was common knowledge that the pumps within the system had the capacity to function optimally for a maximum of 60 years. Even before it was handed over to the GWI in 2002 the system had already been exhausted, the source said.

Just about 20 years have elapsed and none of the pumps has been changed thus they have aged and continue to deteriorate even today.

GWI Public Relations Officer, Rawle Aaron, attributed the deterioration of the system primarily to the lack of sufficient funds to effect necessary changes. “It could not have been rehabilitated because funding always came in a piecemeal fashion and not in a lump sum,” Aaron said.

And while constant maintenance works were carried out, he noted that there was no replacement of the pumps that ceased operating over the years.

He said that the central sewage system consists of pumps which were specially designed for the system. And since no effort was made to upgrade the system he noted that the required parts to maintain the pumps had become unavailable as they were no longer being manufactured.

The situation, he said, has been compounded by the abuse of the system by residents who infiltrate it with foreign objects and because of the increase in the city’s population.

Aaron said that a mere eight of the 24 pumps recommended for the operation of the system are still working, severely compromising the capacity of the network which caters to far more households that it was initially intended for.

It was highlighted in the recently released PAHO/WHO-produced 2008 Strategic Plan for the sanitation sector in Guyana that the central sewage system is in imminent danger of total collapse.

The strategic plan points out that since its inception only one major rehabilitation of the sewage system occurred, during the period 1985 – 1988, adding that pumps began to fail a short while after that, leaving again eight operational. The eight, it was noted, require constant maintenance to remain functional.

The document seeks to emphasise the problems and the major constraints experienced in maintaining the system and underscores that the situation could result in the outbreak of communicable diseases, inclusive of cholera.

It also outlines preliminary specifications and estimates for the rehabilitation of the pumping stations as well as the yards and sewers in selected areas. It goes on to emphasise that “this scenario can only be substantially mitigated through immediate implementation of the works outlined.”

The document also highlights that it was some 10 years ago that a master plan intended for the regularisation of squatter areas within the city was prepared by consultants with the intent of addressing the sewage system. However it was not approved by government thus resulting in a large number of pit latrines being built in various areas around the periphery of Georgetown, contrary to the regulations for the city.

But according to Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali, government is currently developing a plan to regularise squatting areas, even as he pointed out that most squatting areas in the city are in fact reserves that come under the Mayor and City Council of Georgetown.

With funding from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), the water company will come into a “lump sum” which will see it proceeding with efforts geared at overhauling the entire sewage system.

In this regard, advertisements for the supply of the requisite pumps have been published locally, in Trinidad and Brazil and have also been posted on the IDB and GWI websites.

However, the works slated to be engaged this year will not be a complete solution to the sewage problem, Minister Ali has admitted, as it will take several years before it could be remotely reverted to its original state.

In the meantime, customers will have to somehow endure a sewage system on the verge of collapse.