Polyhexanide, also known as Antinfek, was used by the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) to disinfect the Diamond Well Station and another at Hillfoot along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway, GWI Director of Operations Dwayne Shako confirmed at a press conference held yesterday in the company’s boardroom.
This disclosure was in response to questions posed relating to statements made by Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan in the National Assembly last Friday during questioning by PPP/C parliamentarian Dr Frank Anthony on the reason for GWI’s procurement of Antinfek.
GWI, which has been under fire over the use of Antinfek, had earlier claimed that the chemical was only being tested. However, leaked emails had pointed to the chemical being used in wells at Bartica, Diamond and Hillfoot.
According to Shako, after rehabilitation of the Diamond Well Station was completed, it was contaminated with mud and there was a need to have the well disinfected before the water could be distributed to residents. However, because the well was fitted with carbon steel, the use of chlorine as a disinfectant was not considered since chlorine would act a catalyst for corrosion of the steel. As a result, GWI moved to implement the use of Antinfek to quickly disinfect the well for the benefit of residents who would have been without water.
“We dosed the well with Antinfek, allowed it to settle and then we pumped the well to waste to test the water to ensure that it had no bacteria before we distributed it… It [Antinfek] allowed us to disinfect the well as quickly as possible… knowing that it was free of bacteria and knowing that it was friendly to our [environment],” Shako said.
A similar process was implemented to disinfect a newly constructed well station at Hillfoot, along the Linden/Soesdyke Highway as a means of ensuring that residents would be accessing biologically safe water from GWI. He said Antinfek was used in this case as opposed to chlorine, since the use of chlorine in untreated water causes the iron in the water to oxidize which results in clogging of the wells
“Antinfek allows the use for untreated water so we can rest assured that although we can’t remove the iron, we can ensure that the water is biologically safe,” Shako added. He stated that testing for the use of the chemical was done prior to the incident involving the Diamond Well Station.
In response to questions about the use of Antinfek at the Bartica Well Station as reported by this newspaper, Shako said, “I don’t really read Stabroek News but it was not used in Bartica.”
At this point, GWI’s Chief Executive Officer Richard Van West-Charles interjected to condemn reports carried by Stabroek News with regard to the company’s use of Antinfek.
“Stabroek News continues to be irresponsible by printing a lot of garbage with respect to this issue, instead of trying to ascertain the facts very carefully, they are playing with psychological effects of the people and their access to portable water,” Van West-Charles stated.
He said while he believes the media have a role in informing the populace and promoting accountability, questions must be based on fact and investigations and not on leaks.
“We got enough leaks in water and enough medical leaks; I can treat the medical leaks and we can treat the physical leaks of the GWI system but I am not sure how we can fix that leak,” he said.
Stabroek News Editor-in-Chief Anand Persaud said the newspaper stood firmly behind the reportage on Antinfek and it would continue to use all credible sources of information in continuing to report on the various controversies surrounding Dr Van West-Charles and GWI.
Not harmful
Van West-Charles maintained that Antinfek was not harmful to humans and stated that it was registered by both the US Environmental Protection Agency and the US Food and Drug Administration. He stated that it is an ingredient in mouthwash, contact lens solution and has other uses in the medical field to treat wounds.
According to Van West-Charles, though Chlorine is used as a disinfectant, it is not one that kills all bacteria. He highlighted dangers of the improper handling of chlorine.
“Antinfek is not as dangerous as chlorine,” he said. “When we use chlorine, we have to consider two things, its safety for use and safety for staff… When we have chlorine cylinders, we have to protect the staff in handling chlorine because you never know when it will leak and to have staff exposed to it, it is not safe. So we have to ensure that these cylinders are properly stored [have] the right sensors and staff are well trained and that they have necessary protective gear.”
Van West-Charles said there was need to implement the best combinations of chemical and other processes to disinfect water.
“When we visited Kamarang, the water in every spot we took was contaminated. We cannot sit back and be comfortable in our homes in Georgetown when our brothers and sisters who live in riverine communities are taking water that is contaminated. The report recently from Karrau with 30 kids with bloody stools… How can we sit back and not act? So we have to look at different means of disinfecting different sizes of sources of water,” the CEO said.
In response to questions on plans to increase the use of Antinfek following the completion of testing, Van West-Charles stated that GWI was currently looking at a hybrid approach that would not only focus on chemically-based solutions but also ionization, Ultraviolet (UV) light among others.
“At the end of the day, we have to look at the cost and the safety of workers. Those are the two drives for the decision making and it’s not going to be necessarily one cut across the board. Different scenarios across the country [need] different solutions, so we are looking at a hybrid approach to ensure that citizens have access to potable water,” he said.
Nevertheless, he added, “As it is, we chlorinate across the country at a number of treatment plants. We are chlorinating. We have never stopped chlorinating. Let’s be very clear with that. We never stopped chlorinating under the aegis of GWI,” Van West-Charles said.
In some areas, some plants which use surface water with ground water as with Shelter Belt, alum and lime together with chlorine are used, he added.
The concerns raised about Antinfek, including by the Government Analyst-Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD) had questioned the approach by GWI and whether it had sought the requisite permissions.
Stabroek News has seen documentation from GWI meetings that indicated that $3.6 million had been paid to the local subsidiary of the Thailand-based company, Dove Biotech, which was selected in a single source process to supply the chemical.
At an April 11 meeting, it was indicated that an Antinfek 10H chemical order was expected the next day and Van West-Charles suggested that a guideline for chemical dosing in hinterland and riverain communities be prepared. Minutes from another meeting, dated June 7, stated that “two dosing pumps” to monitor the chemical were procured for Hill Foot and Mabaruma.
At a July 6 meeting, it was stated that three of the five wells in Region Nine – at Tabatinga, Bon Success and Kanuku – were contaminated and since the network was interconnected the entire network was affected. Shako had recommended that a “small amount of the Antinfek chemical can be used to shock chlorinate the wells.”
Functioning fine
On July 11, Shako reported at a meeting that the Diamond Well was functioning fine and that it “is being dosed with Antinfek 10H chemical to treat the water.” However, on August 11, he claimed that he had ceased using the chemical to treat the water at Diamond since he was informed by the Water Quality Manager Donna Canterbury that the corporation’s laboratory could not test Antinfek when it is being used.
GA-FDD head Marlan Cole had said he was disturbed to learn that GWI was using Antinfek.
“They didn’t even say let us do a pilot…over the years we used chlorine and that has been effective. I don’t know who ordered this and under what basis but this is very disturbing and I will have to get to the bottom of it… This is serious. We all use this water and we don’t know what it is being treated with?” he questioned.
At that time, Stabroek News was informed that Cole had been in communication with GWI with a view to clarifying exactly what chemical is being used for purification.
GWI, in a press statement the following day, said Cole’s statements “were inaccurate and irresponsible as a senior government functionary. Instead of contacting GWI to gain clarity on the thinking behind the use of Antinfek and whether or not chlorine was still being used, Mr Cole added to an unnecessary cause for public alarm.”
Claiming that Antinfek was not harmful for human consumption, GWI had maintained then that chlorine was being used as the sole disinfecting agent in all treatment plants, while “laboratory studies are being done on the use of other treatment alternatives.”
According to documentation seen by this newspaper, while Canterbury would have conducted tests on the chemical in 2012 which proved positive, she did not recommend its use as the supplier could not have provided her with the side effects of the Antinfek 10H. At the time, GWI did not have the equipment to test for the chemical and confirm the correct dosage and PAHO could not have confirmed that the chemical should be used in water.
