Dear Editor,
I refer to Imtiaz Bacchus’ letter in the Stabroek News dated March 20, 2024, on the matter of water supply at Albion/Fyrish. A new well was drilled and completed by the GWI in-house team at Chesney in March 2023 and serves the areas of Albion, Chesney, Kilcoy, Fyrish, No 1 Village, and Gibraltar.
At the same time, the old well at Fyrish which was failing, was taken out of operation and remains so up to now. Therefore, the claim that water from the Chesney and Fyrish wells is being intermixed is wholly incorrect. Indeed, the water being extracted from the Chesney well has iron content which is lower than the well at Fyrish. It is known that wells on the Coastland in Regions 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 as well as Region 10 have high iron content, and this has been the situation for decades as a result of the characteristics of the coastal aquifer.
The solution to this problem is to construct water treatment plants. At present, GWI has 27 water treatment plants across the coastal belt and also one in Bartica, Region 7.
In recognition of the need to provide clean, safe and treated water to WHO standards (one of which is 0.3 mg/l of iron in water) the Govern-ment of Guyana has mandated GWI to achieve a target of 90% treated water to the coastal population by 2025. At present, seven water treatment plants are being constructed and will be completed this year.
In addition, six more treatment plants will be constructed by the end of year 2025 as well as fifteen small inline treatment plants. At the same time twelve treatment plants are being upgraded and expanded to provide more treated water.
This is a huge investment costing billions of dollars for the provision of much needed treated water to the population. One of the small inline treatment plants will be located at the well at Chesney. GWI wishes to ask Mr. Imtiaz Bacchus to be patient and bear with us as we progress to complete this massive water treatment programme.
Yours faithfully,
Akosua McPherson
Communications Officer
Guyana Water Inc
