East-Corentyne Berbice residents to receive clean, purified water

Georgetown: The days of having to worry about poor quality water are now a thing of the past for about 14,000 residents of Sheet Anchor and surrounding communities in Region Six.

This comes at the heels of a newly constructed water treatment plant in the East-Corentyne Berbice area. Prior to the water treatment plant, “rusty” could be used to describe the type of water residents have been receiving for years.

However, “clean and purified” are now being used by residents to describe the quality of water they receiving following the establishment of a water treatment plant. His Excellency, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali on Saturday commissioned the $1.2 billion project.

Sharmela Persaud, who spent her entire life in Sheet Anchor, “the water before was rusty, you could not have drink it, you used to have to buy water. You could not have done anything with it because when you wash white shirt, it turns like orange shirt. You always have to use bleach all the time, but for the longest while since they open here with the purified water, we do not have any complaint about it.”

Like Persaud, Edmond Benny for years experienced the same plight. “In the past, you could not wash clothes. It would stain your clothes, especially your white clothes but now it is better, very good and we thankful for everything and we get good pressure also and 24 hours service unless there is maintenance. We cannot complain. Anytime we complain, we are stifling our conscience. So, it is something good the government is doing,” Benny explained.

The investment by Government is now making life much better for thousands of residents. This is a manifesto promise made by the PPP/C administration to have improved access to and enhanced quality of water which includes expanding treated water to more areas. Government’s aim is to have 90 per cent of the population on the coast have access to treated water.

With that, Blup Sookram said, “we are getting clear water and we are satisfied with this. Before we used to get the rusty water and now, we are getting pure water. So, when I turn on my pipe, I could take my cup and drink it from the mains straight to me and now I feel more satisfied that we are getting purified water.”

“Growing up as a small boy we had these old-time pumps and it had a lot of iron. Especially going to school, things were not up to date like now. So, we had to use a lot of fabric softener to get the scent off your clothes. Now you can just wash and rinse. The water is of good quality, you can drink from the tap. So, I must compliment the administration for this project in Sheet Anchor,” Paul Mangroo stated.

The water being produced by the water treatment plant has zero iron. This surpasses the standard for drinking-water quality set by the World Health Organisation which is 0.3 milligrams of iron per litre of water. Also, there is zero E. coli in the water being produced. This means that persons can drink water directly from the tap.