IDB to help improve drinking water services in Guyana’s second largest city

Jul 08, 2011

$12 million loan to benefit residents of Linden, improve water quality and reduce water utility’s energy use

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a $12 million loan to improve efficiency, quality and sustainability of the drinking water service in Linden, Guyana's second largest city.
 
The funds will help the city, located 100 kilometers inland from the Atlantic coast, to cut energy use; improve pressure, quality and continuity of the water supply system; reduce the level of revenue loss due to physical and commercial reasons; and strengthen the operation and maintenance performance of the country’s public utility, Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI).
 
Specifically, the five-year program will help reduce GWI’s annual energy spending in Linden from $232,000 to $140,000, while building and rehabilitating 10 kilometers of mains, reducing non-revenue water (NRW) levels from 65 percent to less than 50 percent and bringing water pressure to adequate levels in all households.
 
Works will include construction of two treatment plants to ensure good water quality and of two large reservoirs aimed at ensuring water supply continuity and better pressure in the distribution network.
 
Activities to help reduce NRW include the development of a management plan to address, monitor and control physical and commercial losses, rehabilitation of part of the network, and support for a metering program currently under implementation by GWI.
 
Additionally, the program will address the institutional strengthening needs of GWI in Linden through the preparation of manuals and training activities on operation and maintenance, standard operating procedures, environmental and social safeguards, water quality monitoring procedures, and data collection for monitoring purposes.
 
The Bank’s financing consists of a $6 million loan from its ordinary capital for a 30-year term, with a six-year grace period and a variable interest rate based on Libor, and another credit also of $6 million from the IDB’s concessional Fund for Special Operations for a 40-year term, with 40 years of grace and 0.25 percent interest.
 

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