Over 30,000 Diamond residents to benefit from modern water treatment plant

As the Government of Guyana continues to ensure all Guyanese have access to high quality treated water, the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) is gearing up to construct a state-of-the-art water treatment plant that will serve the new housing developments in Diamond, East Bank Demerara (EBD) and surrounding communities.

The construction of the new Surface Water Treatment Plant in Diamond falls under the revolutionary Guyana Climate Resilient Water Infrastructure Improvement Programme.
This initiative is being carried out in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), with a US$52 million loan and a US$1.1 million grant from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The general objective of the first individual loan operation is to enhance the climate resilience, and operational and financial sustainability of GWI’s potable water services provision.
On Tuesday, GWI hosted a public consultation session ahead of the construction works. At the event, Programme Manager Arshad Yacoub revealed more about the objectives of the initiative.
“One is to provide new access to quality potable water services to meet the growing demand in Diamond and the surrounding communities. The second objective is to reduce non-revenue water and improve meter coverage along the East Bank, East Coast, and Georgetown. Now, non-revenue water – some of us may know, some of us may not know – is the water which is being produced by GWI for which it is unaccounted for. We are not getting a return from it, but it’s being produced. So the idea is to ensure that we reduce the water for which we are not getting any revenue from. And the third one is to improve the management capabilities and digitalisation of GWI, which deals mostly with the institutional strengthening of the agency.”
As it relates to the construction of the new surface water treatment plant, Yacoub revealed that the new facility will be constructed in the Diamond Scheme, some 500 metres from the East Demerara Water Conservancy (EDWC), and will produce some 26 megalitres (ML) of potable water per day.
“We plan to use water from the conservancy, The East Demerara Water Conservancy, which we plan to use water from … to treat, so that we can distribute to the residents in the area.”
Moreover, he revealed that the plant will be supported by climate-resilient infrastructure.
“The installation of 15 kilometres of transmission mains, because as you all know when we build a plant and we treat the water we have to distribute it. So, as part of the activity under this project, we have to install approximately 15 kilometres of transmission mains and, as I said before, the CH&PA (Central Housing and Planning Authority), when they would have constructed the scheme, there are already distribution lines in place.”
He added, “Also, as part of component one of this project, since it’s a climate-resilient project, we’re planning to have some solar generation taking place: a 0.6-megawatt (MW) grid-connected solar photovoltaic (PV) system, and this will power most of the electromechanical equipment on the plant.”
The new plant is expected to serve over 36,000 residents. This publication understands that the pre-feasibility study and the bidding document for the water treatment plant have already been prepared by the IDB consultant, and are currently being reviewed by a technical team at the GWI.
This process is expected to be completed within the next 2 months, after which bids will be opened for the construction of the state-of-the art facility.