Many households in Linden will continue to experience inadequate supply or no potable water for an indefinite period; this is because the much hyped US$13.2 million Linden water treatment project has failed to meet expectations.
The project, which boasts a modern water treatment facility and a 3,200 cubic metre reservoir at Wisroc and a 2,800 cubic metre reservoir and a 200 foot well at Amelia’s Ward, was expected to be commissioned before the May 11 general election, but the idea was shelved after it was realized that the two facilities could not produce enough water to meet the expected demand. This information was kept secret until it was unearthed by Chairman of the Linden IMC Orrin Gordon during a fact finding tour of the facilities on Tuesday 22 August.
GWI’s Divisional Manager Rawle Friday and project engineer David Merrel conducted the tour in which town councillor Charles Sampson and two workers from the environmental health department of the Linden Town Council – Crystal Drakes and Terone Lowenfield – participated, accompanied by reporters from Stabroek News and the Guyana Chronicle.
During the tour, Gordon said he has been bombarded by residents from both sides of the river with complaints that they have not been receiving adequate supplies of potable water. He said even residents close to the reservoir in Amelia’s Ward, complain that they have resorted to using black tanks to trap rain water.
The IMC Chairman outlined that the municipality as representatives on behalf of the people, took the lead role in facilitating meetings and consultations between the project planners and stake holders and as the project unfolded followed the progress of construction. Noting that the project “had some slippages in terms of completion time,” Gordon said, “we understand construction design and some other issues that were there. But we decided around November last year to take a
