Government engineers are being trained to enhance Guyana’s minimal waste management strategies and treatment through a five-day training workshop in wastewater management strategies.
The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) and the Institute for Water Education of UNESCO collaborated to host the workshop, which is funded by the Caribbean Regional Fund for wastewater management (CReW).
The workshop, which opened on Monday at the Millennium Manor Hotel, Hadfield Street, will benefit workers from GWI; Guyana Energy Agency (GEA); Central Planning and Housing Authority (CH&PA) and the Mayor and City Council (M&CC), according to a release from the Government Information Agency (GINA).
Wastewater is water that has waste materials and includes industrial liquid waste and sewage waste. The Minister with responsibility for water, Dawn Hastings-Williams, who delivered brief remarks, said for too long Guyana has been struggling with its water resource.
The Minister urged the participants to join the fight in establishing water security measures to safeguard the water and “to see how best we can utilise it and how best we can treat it in order for Guyanese to have a good supply of quality water”.
Minister Hastings-Williams urged the gathering to put systems in place to last for decades and meet the needs of future generations and weather conditions, especially climate change. She also encouraged participants to be interactive and use the training as an opportunity to better the water sector for all Guyanese, the release added.
GWI Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr Richard Van West-Charles told the gathering that the training was critical since Guyana has a “big” problem with wastewater management.
The CEO explained that the main contributing factor to this was the lack of properly designed septic tanks. He added that another challenge was implementing measures to deal with wastewater management in the new towns including Mahdia, Mabaruma, Rose Hall, Corriverton and Anna Regina.
Currently, GWI is in discussions with the CH&PA to install wastewater treatment plants in new housing schemes and to replace the old distribution system in Georgetown for more effective management of waste.
GWI Director of Operations, Dwayne Shako noted that Guyana has zero treatment of wastewater; therefore, this workshop was necessary since it would establish cost-effective systems for waste water.
Shako deemed the workshop as timely and the first step towards acquiring knowledge of waste management strategies and treatment. “The knowledge part is very important, since many times we do not need to look at high-income systems that would cost us billions of dollars. The solution is right here, with minimum investment with low-cost systems we can use to help us with wastewater management,” Shako explained.
The GWI Operations Director urged the participants to use the knowledge gained and apply it practically in their respective community, town or village to better tackle the wastewater situation.
The facilitator of the workshop is UNESCO-IHE representative from Mexico, Dr Carlos Lopez Vasquez. Dr Vasquez said there was no perfect technology, but if there was an area where the land was discoursed and one wanted to treat the water for reuse, there were low-cost available technologies to do so.
He told the participants that technologies had their advantages and disadvantages, and “we only need to know what is the most applicable one for our specific needs in a specific location”.
The course will address the basic conditions to understand what’s in the water, how to remove the contaminants and how quantity and quality would define the strategy to deal with wastewater. The training will conclude on Friday.
