Since 2008 Farfan and Mendes has been partnering with one of the world’s leaders in the water treatment industry in an undertaking that seeks to enhance countrywide access to potable water.
Pentair Inc, a multi-billion dollar Minnesota-based company specializes in the creation of water treatment systems. Farfan and Mendes has been serving as a distributor for those systems while working with the US company to raise awareness of the importance improving water quality for both domestic and industrial application in Guyana.
Pentair Inc Caribbean and South American Sales Manager, Victor Pizarro, told Stabroek Business during a visit here earlier this week that while sales of Pentair’s water treatment systems locally had doubled in the past two years and are set to increase significantly in the period ahead, the company is also attaching particular significance to the role which its intervention with its local partner can play in improving water quality in Guyana. Accordingly, he says that the Farfan and Mendes/Pentair partnership has been focusing on raising local awareness of the importance of creating a culture of healthy water by reaching out to both the public sector and to other stakeholders involved in the local water supply industry. The two entities have twice collaborated with the local Food and Drugs Analyst Department and other local stakeholders to deliver awareness-raising seminars and Pizarro says that a third seminar is scheduled for later this year.
His visit was an integral element in the partnership and was designed both to provide monitoring services that help assess the effectiveness of Pentair technology here as well as to work with Farfan and Mendes in determining how the technology can be further adapted to meet the particular local water purification challenges.
For its part, Farfan and Mendes has established a Potable Water Division charged with offering local consumers solutions to water-related challenges. Division Head, Colin Carto, told Stabroek Business that apart from its role in marketing Pentair technology, the division also engages both domestic and industrial users of water in an effort to realize best practices and to offer advice on the appropriate application of water technology.
Potable water for domestic consumption has long been a challenge here in Guyana and Carto says that apart from the issue of discoloration there are other challenges associated with the different types of pollutants found in water in various parts of the country. Accordingly, he explains that treatment and technology applications can vary from one area to another, a circumstance which requires that water be subjected to scientific testing before solutions can be applied.
Since the start of the four-year partnership the local company has sold more than 400 Pentair systems to local customers and Carto says that the objective, going forward, is to further raise awareness of the importance of technology that improves water quality. He says that the company offers domestic water purification systems at prices that start from $150,000 and that costs cover installation and some servicing considerations.
Beyond the distribution of Pentair technology Carto says that Farfan and Mendes’ Potable Water Division is also examining ways in which communities can further benefit. There are, he says, possibilities of shared community water purification facilities which might be applicable in interior communities where residents access water from a single source.
Carto says plans for the marketing of Pentair technology locally include the local company’s participation in exhibitions including at this year’s Building Expo. Participation in such events will focus both on marketing Pentair products and on demonstrations and other safe water awareness-raising initiatives.
