GWI forced to re-commission two old water treatment plants

Apr 13, 2017 News

…original plants were badly designed

CEO GWI Dr. Richard Van West Charles

The government and the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) have to now fork out $150M to re-commission two old water treatment plants at Mackenzie and Watooka after two new treatment plants that were built for the mining town, were badly designed.
According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GWI, Dr. Richard Van West Charles, the two treatment plants at Amelia Ward and Wisrock cost $240M.
Dr Van West Charles said that it was hoped that the two treatment plants would have been operational by now in light of the substantial cost that was used to build them.
The two plants were designed in 2011 and their construction was completed in 2015. According to Dr Van West Charles the plants which were constructed by the People’s Progressive Party Civic (PPP/C) administration were badly designed. Certain key indicators were not taken into consideration.
Dr Van West Charles said whoever designed the plants used the same design for two different sources of water. He said the fact that both surface water and ground water would have been captured by the two facilities meant that the design ought to have been different.
He also said the two sources of water meant that the water parameters were different. The designs should have catered for these factors. It did not.
Dr Van West Charles said that the designs were flawed from the beginning and hence the plants are not working in a manner that was expected.
He said that the issue of supply and demand for water in the area was not taken into consideration although that should have been a critical indicator.
Dr Van West Charles added that the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) even brought in a specialist who did some corrective works and found that the filtration system was very flawed. Despite this, the two high value treatment plants are still not operational. The GWI head could not say when the problems will be remedied.
Dr Van West Charles said that many lessons were learnt from that project, and that it was a clear case of how you ‘should not’ approach a project of that nature. “The approach taken was very, very bad; that’s why we are in this problem”.
The GWI head said that although that problem persists the water needs of Linden residents cannot be overlooked and it is towards this end that all efforts will be made to have the treatment plants working in the near future.
The CEO said that he could not give a timeline for the completion of the works but said this will cost his entity a substantial amount to fix. He lamented the fact that the monies that are currently being spent to resuscitate the two old water treatment plant could have been used to execute other developmental works in that region.
The CEO divulged that the two old treatment plants should be up and running by June. Residents can expect not just water supply but a supply of quality water that can be used straight from their taps.