(De Ware Tijd) PARAMARIBO โ Minister Regilio Dodson of Natural Resources will receive a feasibility study for the export of drinking water today. The Dutch embassy had donated US$135,000 for drafting the guidelines for research on how to extract water from nature. The feasibility study was carried out on behalf of Conservation International Suriname (CIS) and the Dutch-Swiss firm Amazone Resources, which has secured a permit to export fresh water from Suriname.
The company plans to take water from rivers, 30 kilometers from the mouth. Annually Surinamese rivers carry 151 billion cubic meters of water to sea. Amazone Resources will collect the water in giant bags and transport them to their destination. The strategy has not been tested yet.
John Goedschalk, director of CIS, says that Barbados is a potential buyer of Surinamese water as a sustainable and cheap addition to their current desalination systems.
The tourist destination annually needs 8 million cubic meter of water and is willing to pay US$ 3.90 per cubic meter. Suriname stands to earn at least US$ 55 million in royalties and tax from the export.
However, there is still a long way to go. The potential investor has to research the effects of taking water from nature. The Dutch grant will enable CIS to hire the Dutch firm Deltares to draft the guidelines for the research.
The environmental organization will demand from the government to deposit part of the proceeds in a Water Welfare Fund to finance other environment projects and to guarantee that Suriname produces clean drinking water
