–affecting works at Church, Irvine and Lamaha streets’ canals
THE Ministry of Local Government & Regional Development (LGRD) and the Georgetown City Council (M&CC) are set to begin talks with the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) to ”resolve the steady dumping of sludge”, which poses difficulties in de-silting the Lamaha, Irving and Church streets’ canals.
A section of the Church St. Canal before de-silting
LGRD Minister, Mr. Norman Whittaker confirmed this development last Wednesday whilst inspecting works done at the Church Street Canal by Contractor S. Jagmohan Hardware Supplies & Construction Services.
Minister Whittaker expressed concern that the materials extracted from the canal have not been carted away. He also expressed concern that the materials, once left on the shoulder of the canal, would wash back into the canal, thus doubling the work intended.
Responding to these concerns, one operative, on behalf of the contractor, gave
all assurance that the debris would be carted off after it has been properly dried. “We don’t want to remove it because it is wet and it keeps running out of the truck,” he informed the minister.
A section of the Church St. Canal after de-silting
Minister Whittaker, municipal officials and the Solid Waste Management Team were informed that “sludge” is being dumped in the canals by the Guyana Water Authority. Some workers informed that, up to one week ago, when de-silting works began on the Church Street Canal, the Guyana Water Authority was still pumping sludge into the drainage system.
Minister Whittaker questioned whether “GWI used to give the City Council…a grant or some assistance” in dealing with the sludge, and Acting Town Clerk Carol Sooba, for her part, responded in the affirmative that this was done some while ago. However, she said, there has been some intention expressed by the municipal authority to “re-engage them (GWI)…because most of their stuff caused the silting of this canal.”
Ms. Sooba noted that the degree of sludge being dumped in the canals in current times is more than what was expelled in previous times.
Whittaker interjected that the issue has been raised at the level of Cabinet, and continued that there is great need to redress the issue at hand.
Confirmation was received from Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), Mr. Timothy Austin, that the agency is currently engaging the M&CC in resolving the current situation as it stands.
In keeping with the regional component of the Georgetown Solid Waste Management project, a number of contracts were awarded to bidders for the de-silting of priority canals around Georgetown.
Heavily silted drains outside the GWI compound
A contract similar to what had been issued in relation to the Church St. Canal was awarded to S. Jagmohan Hardware Supplies & Construction Services for the Lamaha Street Canal, and works in that regard would have begun sometime last week. The Contract awarded to S. Jagmohan Hardware Supplies & Construction Services for Church Street and Lamaha Street canals are for lengths of 2,200 yards and 3,500 yards respectively, to the sums of $6.520M and $7.1M respectively.
The Church St. Canal has a depth of approximately eight feet. The work on this canal extends to Camp Street. The contractor indicated that works started a week ago, using two machines and three trucks, and will impact drainage in the Queenstown and Alberttown areas.
City Engineer, Mr. Colvern Venture had, in recent times, stressed that the dumping of sludge into the Irving, Church, and Lamaha streets’ canals has caused heavy silting of those canals and has resulted in flooding of areas in those communities, particularly in Queenstown and Alberttown.
He recalled that, in recent times, “those waters would have receded very quickly…but because of the sludge, this is no longer the case. If GWI continues to dispose of the sludge within the canals, it’s going to put the areas which drain from these canals in a very peculiar state,” the City Engineer declared.
The City Engineer had reiterated that the sludge from the GWI treatment system “is affecting the canal as far as Camp Street from the Church Street canal.” He similarly noted that silt from the Irving Street Canal has made its way “into the Lamaha Street Canal as far as Albert Street.”
The removal of silt has proven to be a challenge, since the waste is liquid in form, the City Engineer said.
Reaffirming Venture’s call was Coordinator of the Technical Committee of the ‘Clean up Guyana Project’, Mr. Gordon Gilkes, who stated, “The heavy silting of canals is caused by the sludge, which is the waste material accumulated after water would have been treated.”
Gilkes credited the act as “a violation of environmental principles, [since] normally, what they (GWI) are supposed to do [with] the silt [is to] use drying beds and then take the dry stuff to the landfills.”
The officials noted that while, for some four years, there had been discussions with the former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the GWI, Mr. Karran Singh, those discussions had not produced any result.
(By Derwayne Wills)