Better water supply for Mackenzie, West Watooka, Green Valley residents

GINA, GUYANA, Monday, August 22, 2016

Works are ongoing in Region Ten, by the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) to decommission old and leaking water mains, and commission new high-density polyethylene (HDPE) or Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) water mains.

This is part of a process of increasing the level of service throughout the region, GWI’s Divisional Manager, Rawle Friday, said. Addressing the media recently at GWI’s Shelter Belt location, Friday explained that works are taking place in Mackenzie and West Watooka, to the value of $8.281M, and in Green Valley at the cost of $5.605 M.

The Divisional Manager explained that an $8.281M investment is seeing the large-scale replacement and rehabilitation of old, corroded water mains in Mackenzie, to reduce water leakage.

Friday added that some of the old mains and lines in Mackenzie were “put down since the 1950s”. They are “metal lines” that are “compromising” the water quality. “Currently with the NRW team, and with the staff in Linden, we are moving very assiduously to ensure that all old mains are decommissioned,” he said.

The intervention will not only result in improved service delivery in the area, but as well improve the level of service for West Watooka, including providing service for an additional 50 customers, Friday said.

“The entire network in West Watooka has been replaced and this was primarily to ensure improvement in terms of quality and reduce the possibility of contamination of the mains, because most of the mains in West Watooka were done by self-help, and they are exposed, and quite a lot of them are in the drains,” Friday explained.

The project will benefit approximately 2000 GWI customers in Mackenzie and West Watooka, together, Friday said.

For the first half of the year, GWI completed replacement and rehabilitation of over 40 kilometres of old, corroded water mains under the project. The plan is to replace incrementally the old mains, over the next quarter, and in the next year, he said.

Meanwhile, the rehabilitation of the distribution system in Green Valley is an investment that has benefitted 1500 customers, Friday said. “… That was an area that had some pieces of 2-inch lines, we have rehabilitated the entire network in that area, for those persons,” he said.

Other interventions in the region include an $11.251M project to construct bypass mains, install loggers and valves and another $41.537M project that provides for remedial works on Amelia’s Ward and Wisroc storage tanks. This includes installing filters.

With regards to the construction of the bypass mains, loggers and meters valves, Friday explained that this project is critical for the monitoring and provision of information critical to service delivery, in Region Ten.

“We have installed loggers because what we are moving into is really measuring the water delivered to customers, and to do it by what is called district metering areas, (or DMA) so we are looking at isolating areas, that we can properly control and measure  and distribute the water,” the GWI Divisional Manager said.

He explained that GWI has found, especially in places like Amelia’s Ward, “because of Linden being that hilly geographical area, that here are some persons who are receiving water pressure, as much as 25 psi (per square inch) and some persons are receiving as low as 5 psi.”

Meanwhile, the remedial works on the Amelia’s Ward and Wisroc plants are to ensure the sustainability of the newly constructed plants. Under this project, just about five percent of persons, primarily in the Amelia’s Ward area, are having some challenges in receiving water, and will also receive redress, Friday explained.

“Currently there is a project that is now ongoing, that is to install a transmission line directly from the newly constructed reservoir to a booster station, through that intervention, in the upper end of Amelia’s Wards (the northern areas), just about 500 persons would receive an improved level of service and improved water supply.”

About 12 percent of residents are receiving water on a 24-hour basis, and the rest are benefitting from about 18 hours per day. “With the other interventions that are occurring, we are moving to a 24 -hour supply,” Friday added.

It is a work in progress and all the work that has to be done will be done incrementally, into this year and next year. “There will be some major changes, and you will see the necessary improvement as we go along,” the GWI Divisional Manager added.