Supplying residents of Lethem and neighbouring villages with potable water from the remnants of the hydro dam in the Kanuku Mountains is not feasible at this time, Minister of Housing and Water Irfaan Ali said in a written response in the National Assembly yesterday.
Responding to a question posed by GAP/ROAR MP Everall Franklin, Ali said that installing the infrastructure for such a project would cost over $8 billion.
Franklin had asked whether the Ministry of Housing and Water had examined the possibility of harnessing water from the remnants of the dam to supply Lethem, Moco Moco, Tabatinga, St Ignatius, Culvert City and other villages in Region Nine.
Ali said that in order for that to be done, the penstock, located some 300 metres above the base of the mountain would have to be replaced. Considering that a landslide had damaged the hydro scheme any replacement would have to be unsusceptible to landslides and this would cost some $2 billion, he said.
Noting that some of the villages mentioned were as far as 35 kilometres away, he said that installing infrastructure to distribute the water could cost some $6 billion.
Given that the population of the areas mentioned totalled just around 35,000, he said, the per capita cost of this means of supplying potable water would be around $229,000. The national average is $9,500 per customer, he said, making such a project unfeasible.
