The Linden Water System Rehabilitation is a major investment and a transformative project

Dec 18, 2012 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The Linden community must urgently adopt a new, collective approach to, and narrative on water, if it is to protect and conserve this valuable resource.
In more recent history, our water resources have been managed by GWA/GWI. For the past two decades the Linden community has bemoaned the state of the Linden Water System; the complaints justifiably included poor and intermittent distribution, low pressure, and poor quality (colour, bacteria) water.
In its more distant history, Linden enjoyed a very high level of water security: this was due to a combination of partial access to high quality potable water and readily available sources of healthy and unimpaired surface water. Our very actions over the years, along with our unmindful approach towards water, have resulted in continuing environmental degradation and almost universal degradation of surface water sources.
In Linden, water is ubiquitous; it is everywhere and affects every aspect of life in the town.  Water, rain, surface water and groundwater, are all one resource and must be managed and approached accordingly. The flow of water is the most dominant natural force in Linden. The nature of this flow is a result the geomorphology of the land but also shapes the land.
In Linden, a good proportion of the rain/precipitation falling on the sandy hills flows to the river by way of springs and creeks. This flow is constant, persistent.
We have not quantified the flow nor have we monitored it. What we have done is hamper the flow, deliberately and inadvertently: rerouting and blocking of creeks, cutting of trees, uncontrolled building on the flood plain and creek beds, dumping of refuse, poor drainage design, lack of engineering controls. There is an uninformed approach to water accompanied by an equally uninformed narrative.  Landslides, erosion, flooding, rapid deterioration of roads, and the referenced universal degradation of surface water sources are directly related to our uninformed approach and practices.
The Linden Water System Rehabilitation is a major investment in the health and well-being of the community. It is also potentially one of the most transformative projects in the history of Linden. Transformative in that it offers an opportunity for, and demands, a new narrative and informed appreciation of the role of water in the social, economic and cultural development of Linden. It is transformative, also, in that it invites the community to act within its interest, by becoming actively engaged in the development of this critical natural resource.
Unfortunately, the community has not embraced the project with the level of curiosity and engagement required.
The proposed design of the Rehabilitated System was based on GWI’s internal assessment, consultations with the Linden community, and a number of assessment and studies. The latter included The Linden Water Safety Plan, National Program of Action for the Minimization of Land-based Sources of Pollution at Linden and Household Water-Use Survey.
The sources of water for the rehabilitated system are sub-surface wells at Amelia’s Ward and the Dakoura Creek at Wisrock. The program calls for protection of both sources. The Dakoura Creek Protection Strategy has been initiated; the required protection strategy for the Amelia’s Ward wells has not been initiated. The most likely strategy for the Amelia’s Ward wells would be “well-head protection”. This strategy has national significance because the recharge area for the coastal aquifers, the ones serving Georgetown and the Coast, is in the vicinity of Linden.  And currently there is no formal well-head protection strategy in Guyana.
The G$1.7B project was funded by a loan from the IDB and is governed by that agency’s environmental and procurement policies. It would appear that IDB’s policies are not equally aligned with the interest and anticipation of the Linden community.
One:  IDB’s environmental policy mandates that potential environmental impacts of the project on the community be identified and mitigated, and the community consulted and engaged in any related responses; this appears to match the community’s expectation.
Two: The procurement policy does not allow selective procurement of services or set-asides to special groups (Linden contractors or firms); this apparently conflicts with the Linden community’s expectation that engagement of regional contractors and labourers would be among the economic benefits of the project.
Recent missives from the community equate the lack of obvious engagement of the regional contractors with the PPP/C administration’s continued marginalization.  This reflects part of the narrative that is neither helpful nor empowering. Actually, the issue of use and engagement of the Linden contractors and workers was raised and gingerly discussed in the IDB-sponsored Risk Management Consultation that was attended by the major stakeholders.
The contractor association and other stakeholders should formally engage the construction companies on their procurement strategy for subcontracting, housing and office space, and other services; there should be a list of required skilled and unskilled workers. What is also essential is the enactment of the requisite legislation that would facilitate mentoring of local contractors in conjunction with regional set-aside programs.
The Linden Water System Rehabilitation Project also has a strong component for public consultation and education. This is to be administered by GWI’s PR Department and the firm providing construction supervision. The Linden community should be proactive and engage GWI immediately on the related plans, get to know the scope and allotted resources and name the community representatives, not wait as mere recipients.
There is an existing Stakeholder Committee. It is not adequately staffed, is poorly attended and without appropriate guidance and direction. The various stakeholders do not claim their place on the committee, with the result that GWI is the dominant stakeholder on the committee. The committee should be pressing for greater community ownership and stewardship, as it was conceived.
It is important that the Linden Water System be introduced at the high school level as part of the environmental curriculum.  The committee should be formalized and have its mandate expanded to include all aspects of water management and conservation in Linden.
Finally, Linden would benefit from a specific, integrated environmental/water policy that would guide the development, assessment and conservation of its water resources. The Linden Mayor and Town Council has previously been approached to adopt “Protecting the Waters” as its environment policy.
Samuel Wright
Environmental Management Consultant
Linden

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