In a bid to ensure that the highest quality drinking water is provided by local producers, the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) and the Caribbean Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) held a workshop titled ‘Standards in the Drinking Water Industry’ at the Hotel Tower yesterday.
The workshop was held under the theme “competitiveness through the use of technical standards” and entailed presentations from representatives of GNBS, CROSQ and the Food and Drug Department. A fair number of water purification entrepreneurs and a few prospective ones turned out to the workshop and the interactive sessions were met with a lot of questions from them.
The general aim of the workshop was to inform water producers on how to bring their water production business up to par with national standards; which in turn mean regional standards since CROSQ has been adopted locally.
It was made clear at the workshop that the water producing sector needs to be regularized. Working in line with this, CROSQ has an ongoing project targeting Small Micro Enterprises (SME), funded by the International Development (Bank) and is seeking to include water producers, most of who qualify as SMEs. The workshop served as a platform for informing the water producers, on how to upgrade their facilities. The hosts where were quick to point that they were not imposing any ideas on persons but rather wanted everything to run as an interactive process.
Amarnauth Maraj of the Food and Drug Department outlined a presentation on the requirements of the department on reaching the national standards. Permission from the Central Housing and Planning Authority is one of the first things that must be done, followed by the registration of business name and brands if any are to be used.
Maraj said that a food handler’s certificate is necessary before permission is granted.
He said that until persons participate in 16 hours of training from the Food and Drug Department they will not be issued a food handler’s certificate.
Maraj told the gathering that one of the things the department has problems with is the recordkeeping of some of the water producers. He said the department has visited some establishments where records had not been updated for two and three years. Establishments are supposed to process line records every half hour as proof that they are monitoring closely their water purification process. Maraj also said that small issues such as hand-washing, changing-room facilities and dress code at establishments will have to be addressed, since they have an impact on the end product.
Executive Director of the GNBS, Dr Chatterpaul Ramcharran, encouraged the water entrepreneurs to work together and to form an association as persons in other trades such as craft, have done. Ramcharran also emphasized the need to meet again and in the meantime he urged persons at the workshop to work along with the GNBS and other collaborating agencies to provide advice and assistance in streamlining operations from root to the finished product.
Meanwhile the point was raised at the workshop on the part customers have to play in ensuring the purified water they buy remains that way. A suggestion was made that advisories should be issued on the need for consumers to use sterilized containers when buying water.
