Guyana's complex sewage problem

GEORGETOWN, Guyana — It's a rainy Wednesday morning and as I watch the rain stream down my window at the Pegasus Guyana Hotel and watch the Demerara kiss the Atlantic, I can't help but wonder just how much raw sewage is being released into the open ocean.

There is no sewage treatment plant in the country, which has a total population of close to 800,000.

In central Georgetown, domestic, commercial and industrial waste is collected and discharged into the ocean — more than two million gallons per day. In outlying districts, there is a septic system which does some treatment, but according to a representative of the state-owned utility Guyana Water Inc, it's not as effective as it ought to be. That has implications for waterways and groundwater since the septic tanks discharge into drains or soak-away pits.

"With the heavy downpour, there is an overflow and you have sewage mixed with water. That is a public health risk," said the representative, who asked that his name be withheld.

The subsequent flooding of streets, to include the grounds of President Donald Ramotar's office and sections of the hotel grounds, was cause for concern for some residents.

A hotel employee told the Jamaica Observer that the situation made people generally fearful. Another remarked that she and her colleagues were concerned.

Added to the potential sewage flow, she pointed to the flooded Le Repentir cemetery in the centre of town as well as the garbage washed into the streets.

"To come out to work today I had to put plastic bags over my feet and it's just one day of rain. It's very puzzling," she said, noting that the flooding was the result of a single day of rainfall.

"This is history for me. We had a big flood in 2005, but then it had rained for a week. This means the problem is getting worse," she told the Observer.

Georgetown is below sea level and its drainage is dependent on low oceanic tide.

Guyana isn't unique in the non-treatment of wastewater. Neighbouring Suriname doesn't do it either, and many Caribbean islands, including St Vincent and the Grenadines, either have no treatment or ineffective treatment. The result is that as much as 90 per cent of the wastewater discharged into our waterways is either raw or not properly treated. For the wider Caribbean, which includes Latin America, the figure hovers around 80-85 per cent.

That's at the heart of the GEF-CReW project which started in 2011 with a view to reducing the negative environmental and human health impacts of untreated wastewater discharges. GEF-CReW means Global Environment Facility-Caribbean Regional Fund for Wastewater Management. It is a US$20-million four-year project implemented by the United Nations Environment Programme and the Inter-American Bank.

Project point person Denise Forrest is eager to see a change in the current practice because separate and apart from the negative impacts to the environment, untreated wastewater can cause water-borne illnesses such as cholera, filariasis, diphtheria, to name a few. Untreated sewage also poses a risk to the sustained livelihood of fisherfolk and workers in the hospitality sector, to the supply of seafood, and to the region's shorelines, which are being eroded from the effects of climate change.

"It is so inextricably linked to our economic development that if we fail to treat with the issue we are diminishing our chances for a prosperous future," Forrest said yesterday.

She explained that Guyana's current sewerage system was laid in the late 1920s, at which time it was in line with the conventional belief that "dilution is the solution to pollution". But the country has ambitious plans to rehabilitate its sewerage system. With funding from the Inter-American Bank, the Georgetown Water Supply and Sewer System II should see a changing out of pipes and pumps within the system come next year.

The plans also include converting the Tucville pumping station to a primary wastewater treatment plant before 2016, and studying the characteristics of the wastewater in the septic system to determine if the treatment in that case is effective.

Despite the absence of a wastewater treatment plant, Guyana has come a long way as the prevalence of waterborne diseases here has dropped significantly since people moved away from pit latrines to using flush toilets.

"We have achieved the MDG (Millenium Development Goal) in terms of water, but we're just about halfway in terms of sanitation," the Guyana Water Inc source said yesterday. "But water and sanitation are linked in so many ways that without proper sanitation people can get sick."

To guard against that, the Ministry of Health and Guyana Water Inc doing are distributing oral tablets and encouraging residents of Georgetown and surrounding areas to take them to guard against contracting filariasis in particular, a waterborne disease which can be contracted through mosquito bites.