The Guyana Water Inc (GWI) has completed the geo-physical logging of 100 wells along Guyana’s coast, the first phase for formulating a groundwater management plan.
A GWI release yesterday noted that more than 90 percent of the water supply on the coast and 70 percent countrywide comes from groundwater sources.
The release informed that the data gathered during the exercise, including on the various strata of soil, sand and rock between the earth’s surface and the aquifer system, has already been analysed and inputted into a database, and will facilitate the construction of a physical model of the aquifer system.
The exercise was conducted with support from Deltares, an applied research institute in water and subsurface environment, and the Inter-American Development Bank, under the Water Supply and Sanitation Infrastructure Improvement Programme (WSSIIP), GWI reported.
“The idea of building the model is to enable us to have a tool for predicting our groundwater abstraction and use because we realise that for Guyana’s future and the growth of future generations, there must be an integrated approach towards groundwater management and for the overall water resources management,” GWI’s Manager of Water Resources and Climate Adaptation, Orin Browne said. Browne made the comment during a recent workshop on the outcome of the Geophysical well logging survey.
Once the database is completed, it will be made available to agencies such as the Ministry of Agriculture’s Hydrometeorological service, the Office of Climate Change, Ministry of Communities, Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, Environmental Protection Agency and Banks DIH Limited.
Representatives of various agencies which have a vested interest in the country’s groundwater supply, commented on how vital the information will be for their operations.
“All wells being drilled across the country should be guided by Hydromet. Obviously this kind of information has not been available before, so once available to Hydromet, it will guide us in terms of the licensing of wells and well owners and well drillers. So it’s really critical to what we do, it is a guide to what we do in terms of where wells should be drilled and hopefully this can grow into helping us determine the abstraction rates for wells,” Acting Chief Hydromet Officer, Dr. Garvin Cummings said.
