Jagdeo a no show at Sophia commissioning ceremony

Jul 24, 2011 News

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What started out as a highly anticipated event for residents of Sophia yesterday proved to be a great disappointment to a majority of the gathering since the official commissioning of the Sophia Water Treatment Plant was postponed. President Bharrat Jagdeo failed to show up.
Never the less, Jose Manuel Ruiz, Chief of Operations, Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Country Office, played his role at the “would be commissioning ceremony”.
Ruiz explained that it was only one week ago that the Inter American Development Bank was in Linden signing off on two operations; the Linden Water Rehabilitation Programme which is a US$12M loan that would benefit the residents of Linden by improving water quality and efficiency of the water supply system, and the Caribbean Regional Wastewater Management.
Besides the Linden Programme, the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) is currently implementing with IDB resources:
– A US$10M “Georgetown Sanitation Improvement Program” with the objective of improving the Georgetown sewerage system and strengthen GWI performance by improving asset management and decreasing energy consumption
– The TC “Financial and Institutional Strengthening of GWI (US$500,000) aimed at improving GWI operating procedures and accounting system; and
– The TC “Preparation for the Water and Sanitation Upgrade Program” (US$650,000) aimed among other things at updating the 1995 sewerage master plan for Georgetown.
The US$14.7M Georgetown Water Supply and Sewer System Programme was completed in 2010 with the aim of improving the sanitary conditions of the population in Georgetown.
Another aim was to reduce the current levels of environmental degradation through an improvement in the quality of the water supply and sewerage services. In order to achieve this goal, the program had three objectives;
(a) the improvement in the availability and quality of potable water and the reliability of the distribution system;
(b) the improvement in the level of operation of the sewerage system; and
(c) the consolidation and further improvement of GWI as the operating agency.
Under components (a) and (b), Iron Removal plants were constructed at Sophia and Central Ruimveldt. Additional outputs of the program included rehabilitation works of the sewerage system and works at the GWI’s Shelterbelt.
Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali, told the gathering that water treatment is a “very expensive formula” and in 2006, 25 percent of the population had access to treated water.
To date, 45 percent can now access treated water and the aim is to have at least 70 percent of the entire Guyanese population in five years times benefitting from access to treated water.
Though 98 per cent of the Coastal population can access water, it is still a limited per cent that can access treated water, since Guyana’s water content has a high level of iron.
As he highlighted areas of importance to the water sector, Minister Ali pointed out that an area which is very critical is wastage and results of “line wastage”.
Since many households for some period of time could not access water, people resorted to breaking some water lines and this has proven to be costly for GWI since a lot of money had to be spent to conduct necessary repairs, not forgetting there was a high wastage of flowing water.
“Another integral piece to be completed is the Cummings Lodge Well which has not been activated as yet. In two weeks we will be able to fully activate the complete system and the level of service here at Sophia will be improved greater.”
He stated that there has been tremendous improvement in pressure and flow of water for the past five years since nearly $3.6B has been invested to improve water services in Region Four.
With the addition of the Sophia Water Treatment Plant another 30,000 residents are expected to benefit from improved water service due to the construction of this water facility.
According to GWI’s Executive Director of Capital Investment and Planning, Ramchand Jailal, the fully functional Sophia Water Treatment Plant was funded by the IDB to the tune of in excess of $300M. The facility was constructed by the Trinidad-based firm UEM Inc.
“This new facility successfully serves the population in and around Sophia “A” Field, Sophia “B” Field, Bel Air and Prashad Nagar” said Jailal.
Information from a press release sent by GWI stated that the new Sophia Water Treatment Plant is a state-of-the-art facility which comprises of a modern energy efficient gravity type water treatment technology. The plant utilizes a sodium hypochlorite generation system which aids in the chlorine purification process.
It is complemented by aerators and lime dosing systems which aid in the adjustment of concentration ions (acidity and alkaline) content and oxidation tanks that facilitate the removal of iron via filtration and backwash lagoons.
The facility is also supported by an electricity control building which aids in efficient operation.

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