Week-long more water woes for Berbicians

Feb 02, 2019 News

Managing Director of the Guyana Water Inc., Dr. Richard Van West Charles, revealed during a press briefing at the New Amsterdam Town Hall, yesterday, that nine pump stations throughout Berbice (New Amsterdam-Number 69 Village) are currently facing problems due to the fluctuating supply of power from the Guyana Power & Light.
According to Dr. Van West-Charles, the situation that has developed over the past few days resulting in the shortage of water in the Ancient County, was examined and analysed. GWI has determined that it could be remedied within a matter of days.
He said, “We know residents between New Amsterdam and Number 69 Village have been having difficulties accessing water. We have looked at our systems, our structure, the electrical and mechanical systems and we have arrived at the point where nine pump stations, together with two treatment plants, one in New Amsterdam and another at Port Mourant, have been having challenges in respect to the voltage coming in from GPL.”
The Managing Director noted that the pumps have not been responding as they should and readings gathered from assessments show the voltage fluctuations are below what is required for the pumps to effectively function in the stations and treatment plants.
Dr. Van West-Charles told the media that since the problem developed, generators at New Amsterdam and Port Mourant treatment plants have been working round the clock to provide some assistance, but he stated that they may not be sufficient.
“It is no secret that GWI does not have all of the generators that are required in case of outages. We have a number of them which are spread out throughout the country. We also have to run the systems in the hinterland but this situation has caused us to be in touch with the senior professionals of GPL, and they have been working with us and guiding us in this situ

GWI officials during the forum in Berbice

ation,” the director added.
Dr. Van West-Charles explained that without the power GWI, in reality, cannot produce the water and although there are talks about alternative energy to power the pumps “it will not suffice to drive the majority of pumps”.
Executive Director of Operations (GWI), Dwayne Shako, explained that the variations in the voltage to run a motor that is designed to run at 415 volts is what is causing the slew of issues at the water company.
He stated that GPL has informed the water company that they are having sub-generation issues at the Canefield, East Canje System. “They are presently pushing power from Skeldon so the stations that are affected are the stations on the lower end of the system, Canje and Lower Corentyne.
Upper Corentyne stations are not affected because they are closer to the generation site. We have been trying to regulate transformers, we have been looking at our systems to see if we can increase the size of the motor to see if we can compensate for the low voltage but many times our wells cannot handle a larger size of pump,” he said.

According to the Managing Director, resolution of the issue is expected within a week’s time but posited that the situation is being monitored and GWI is on alert “to ensure that the service in Region Six is restored”.
Canje is expected to receive a treatment plant together with a generator by October. That project is 80% complete.
Present at the press conference, also, were the Executive Director of Commercial Services and Customer Relations (GWI), Mr. Marlon Daniels; GWI Region Six Manager, Randolph Leitch; Revenue Manager Loyden Henry; REO Kim Stephens; Deputy Mayor Wayne McIntosh; Prime Minister Representative Gobin Harbhajan; and Member of Parliament Barbara Pilgrim.

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