GWI DELIVERS ON PROMISE TO PROVIDE NAPPI & MARAKANATA WITH WATER ACCESS
Monday, February 25, 2019: Georgetown, Guyana – The gift of potable water was presented to a section of the community of Nappi for Guyana’s 49th Republic Anniversary. During the latter part of January, GWI officials visited the community, located in Central Rupununi, Region 9 and made a promise to provide easy access to potable water to some residents by February 23, 2019.
During the community meeting, it was mentioned that a well and trestle, constructed early 2015, were never put into operation and the as such the community pleaded with GWI to make this system operable, so as to alleviate the challenges faced in accessing water.
GWI has since taken up the mantle to address these issues and residents can now boast of adequate access to potable water, following works undertaken over the past few weeks to activate the well.
In addition, GWI is currently undertaking inspection and development of the main well, as it was found that there was build-up of sediments within the well casing. Water quality analyses were subsequently carried out on samples from the well and other hand-dug well sources, before and after cleaning.
To guarantee water pumping to the community, a photovoltaic system consisting 4 panels was installed on the hand-dug well and the well was interlinked to the now-functional trestle so that residents can access water from standpipes for the first time.
There are some clusters within the community that were not receiving potable water such as Jerusalem and South East. As such, GWI conducted GIS mapping of the entire community to ensure access to those areas.
Deputy Toshao of Nappi, Mr. Sylvester Fredericks thanked GWI’s Managing Director, Dr. Richard Van West-Charles and team for their timely intervention.
“For several years the cluster in the community could not access water from the structure that was built so Dr. Van West told them that they are going to get the gift for the 23rd and it so happen that it came into fruition and right now a cluster of the residents are accessing water”, Mr. Fredericks said.
He added, “I happen to be there yesterday afternoon to see the tanks being filled and so on and supplying the residents around there.”
Mr. Fredericks explained that not only is water going to the tanks on the trestle, but also on top of one of the highest peaks at Nappi.
Meanwhile, the residents of Marakanata (also in Central Rupununi) can also rejoice about easy access to potable water, after GWI intervened to provide a 430 gallon storage tank and install a distribution network. The community had one tank and residents were made to walk long distances to fetch water.
During a visit to the community, GWI was greeted by a few residents including a differently-disabled, elderly man who was seen walking to fetch water.
With the installation of the distribution network, residents no longer have to walk far to access water but can now get water at their homes. These works were successfully completed by the GWI staff of Region 9, under the direction of the Executive Director of Hinterland Services, Mr. Ramchand Jailal and Regional Manager, Mr. John Yow.