Contracts signed for construction of five new water treatment plants –Minister Rodrigues

Jan 05, 2025 News

Kaieteur News- Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues on Friday said that the government recently signed contracts for the construction of five more water treatment plants for various communities across the coast.

The minister made the disclosure at her ministry’s end-of-year press conference while providing an update on the treated water programme.

“We promised to expand treated water. In 2020 we developed the Coastal Water Treatment Programme 2021 to 2025,” said Rodrigues, who related that in 2020 her ministry carried out an assessment of the total population receiving treated water and at the time it discovered that only 52% were benefiting.

“So, the strategic plan was developed to ensure that we increase treated water coverage from 52% to 90% and we are on track to ensuring that is delivered by the end of 2025,” she explained.

The minister said that after assuming office, the government rolled out seven new large water treatment plant projects which are all nearing completion and will be operational early this year. She noted too that they have been upgrading the 12 existing water treatment plants. They are also nearing completion.

Minister Rodrigues said that the move to execute these projects is not due to the lack of access to water but because of the complaints received from coastal communities concerning treated water.

“We have signed contracts for five large water treatment plants funded by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) and this will be implemented under the second phase of the Coast Water Treatment Programme. This is being funded to the tune of $12billion,” she said.

Further, the minister said that works on the new projects are expected to commence this month. She disclosed that since taking office, the ministry has been able to increase treatment plants from 28 to 54.

Kaieteur News had reported that the five new water treatment plants will be located in Regions Two, Three, Five and Six. The agency in its initial tender stated works will be done in three lots, with Lot 1 consisting of a treatment plant for Maria’s Delights in Region Two, Lot 2 for water treatment plants for Leguan, and Wakenaam in Region Three, and at Lot 3 for Bath in Region Five and at Adventure in Region Six.

The award of the contracts were done by the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) recently which revealed on its website that Lot One was awarded to ACE, Phoenix Projects Private Limited for $757,673,302; Lot Two was awarded to Sigma Engineers Limited & Hebei Wansheng for $1,486,448,800; and Lot Three will be executed by ACE, Phoenix Projects Private Limited for $2,130,097,816.

The Government of Guyana had applied for financing from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) in an amount equivalent to US$76,249,000 towards the cost of Water Supply Improvement Project (WSIP) and intends to apply a portion of the proceeds of this financing for the treatment plants.

Being responsible for the overall implementation of the project, the ministry in its document revealed that the works include but may not be limited to “the construction of five water treatment plants along the coast (average plant size of 7.3million litres per day).”

(Contracts signed for construction of five new water treatment plants –Minister Rodrigues)

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Caribbean Development Bank loan, five new projects, Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues, water treatment plants

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