Nearly $6B in contracts signed to upgrade 12 water treatment plants

As part of its goal of delivering treated water to at least 90 per cent of the population, the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) on Wednesday signed contracts to the tune of almost $6 billion for the rehabilitation of 12 existing water treatment plants across the country.
Contracts were awarded for the upgrade of water treatment plants at Vergenoegen, Pouderoyen, and Fellowship in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); Better Hope, Mon Repos and Friendship on the East Coast of Demerara as well as Eccles, Covent Garden and Grove, East Bank Demerara – all in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica); Cotton Tree, West Coast Berbice in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); and New Amsterdam and Port Mourant in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).

According to GWI Chief Executive Officer (GWI) Shaik Baksh, the rehabilitation of these plants will benefit thousands of persons.
“Some of these plants and the filters are over 40-50 years so they are very aged. So, we’ve taken a decision that we should replace those filters and have an upgrade of other components of those treatment plants… For the 12 upgraded plants, we expect 60,000 more beneficiaries. They’re already supplying treated water to certain areas or zones, but this will increase by 60,000 more with the upgraded plants,” he stated.
Only last month, GWI signed some $8.5 billion in contracts for the construction of seven new water treatment plants across the country at Onderneeming, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); Parika, Wales, Lust-en-Rust and Caledonia in Region Three, and Cummings Lodge and Bachelor’s Adventure in Region Four.
The setting-up of these new treatment plants and upgrading existing ones along with another project for 10 small in-line filter plants to come next year are all part of GWI’s Coastal Water Treatment Infrastructure Programme that will be implemented during the 2021-2025 period.
CEO Baksh noted that this aggressive and comprehensive programme was aimed at achieving the goal of distributing treated water to 90 per cent of the coastland within the next two to three years that will benefit in excess of 300,000 persons.
The GWI Head said he was proud that the agency was able to push ahead with the first two components of this larger initiative in the past year.
“The goal is to provide safe and reliable water to the population. Already, we are on our way to provide 99 per cent access to the coastal belt of water and 100 per cent access to water in the hinterland communities. It’s a massive separate programme of drilling the wells, distribution networks and so on. So, the goal really is to ensure that water reduces the poverty levels in our country. We’re targeting unserved areas. We’re targeting the new housing developments…[which] have been factored into this treated water programme,” Baksh stated.

Remedy deficiencies
In fact, he further disclosed that only recently they were able to restore treated water to residents in major communities along the East Bank Demerara corridor including Grove, Covent Garden and Eccles after more than five years. He noted that teams of contractors and engineers were still working on that corridor to remedy deficiencies in the distribution network such as leakages.
Baksh posited that ultimately, the GWI was working to have persons drinking the water coming directly from the taps/pipes.
Meanwhile, the 12 contractors who will be undertaking these upgrade works at the water treatment plants are Compass Engineering (Friendship); H Nauth and Sons (Mon Repos and New Amsterdam); D & R (Better Hope); Dax Engineering (Grove, Covent Garden and Eccles); International Import and Supplies (Port Mourant); Singh and Son (Cotton Tree); S Jagmohan and Co (Fellowship and Pouderoyen), and Toshiba Water Solutions Inc (Vergenoegen).
CEO Baksh used the opportunity to charge these 12 contractors to adhere to the contract terms and deliver their respective projects on time and with high-quality work.
“We expect timely completion… We don’t expect any delays in the execution of these programmes. As a matter of fact, I know some contractors – from what I’ve been told – have already started sourcing materials and so on in terms of mobilising and will commence work very shortly. So, I expect the timely completion of these projects…
“We expect a high quality of work and quality materials for the storage and filters, the pumps and the motors that you have to provide. We will be paying special attention to quality materials and quality work, and we’re developing a quality control programme for this… On our side, we will ensure payments are expedited,” the water company boss stated.
Moreover, it was noted that GWI has been building capacity to establish a cohort of in-house project supervisors to provide oversight of these projects in order to ensure that contractors deliver quality work. (G8)