The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) plans to distribute water filters to homes, schools, and health facilities to ensure a safe water supply in hinterland and riverine communities, Managing Director Dr. Richard Van West-Charles announced on Wednesday.
During a news conference in the company’s boardroom, Van West-Charles stated that as part of its thrust to ensure equity of access to safe potable water supply in Guyana GWI has been working directly with regional administration to create a list of communities that do not have access to water.
“Many of the communities, many of the health facilities and many of the schools are taking water from the river and that water is contaminated,” he said before alluding to an incident in the village of Karrau in the Essequibo River, where the use of contaminated water caused a number of children to suffer from continuous bouts of diarrhoea.
Giving an update on the situation in Karrau, he indicated that a well has since been completed and the pump installed, with the only thing left to be done being the establishment of trestles for the tanks.
He went on to say that until sustainable solutions to these issues are found, GWI has begun the process of purchasing water filters to be distributed to at risk communities.
“We have begun to purchase filters that we know work… that have been tested, used internationally by Oxfam, UK Security and other international agencies, and we have begun distributing to schools, health centres, and hospitals,” Van West-Charles said, while adding that GWI is looking to provide larger filters for the larger communities as it moves to secure funding for the establishment of wells in those communities.
Meanwhile, according to the Government Information Agency (GINA), GWI has thus far distributed water filters in Kamarang, Region Seven, where residents were recently faced with a diarrhoea outbreak. It was suspected that the river water used by the residents for drinking and domestic purposes was contaminated.
GWI has also completed the construction of a large reservoir in Region One and is currently in discussions with the Guyana Energy Agency on plans to access water from Hosororo Falls to be treated, stored and distributed to residents and institutions in the area.
In Port Kaituma, in addition to drilling wells, GWI with the help of the Institute for Applied Science and Technology (IAST) and other organisations will be assessing the water resources in the area.
“We suspect that there is some degree of contamination form mining in the area, but we are going to be working with institutions outside of Guyana and IAST to help us to discern very carefully the level of contamination, if any at that level,” Van West Charles said.
