Although the water sector has improved over the past year, one of the lingering challenges facing the entity is its ability to provide treated water to its customers in the future.This is according to Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali, who during his end of year press conference, recently, related that the water sector is at a stage of development which now requires an assessment of the level of the aquifers.Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan AliThis development,Cheap NFL Jerseys, the Minister said, has been planned for next year. A $7.1 million grant was handed over to the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) to facilitate a preliminary assessment of a section of the coastal aquifers within the Demerara Region.GWI is expected to make an in-kind contribution worth some $4.5M towards this project.According to Minister Ali, an assessment of the level of the aquifers will provide vital information in understanding what level of ground resource water is available.“This will determine whether we will have to move towards treated surface water and convert it into surface water (that is for example water we are dumping now into the Demerara River from the Conservancy) into portable water for human consumption. This is one of the challenges and opportunity that we will face in 2010.”The assessment is geared at assessing the physical properties of the ground water reservoirs and ground water itself which will help in the formulation of a data base. It is expected that the information within the database will increase GWI capacity to better understand changes occurring in the reservoirs and help to better manage the use of ground water.Further, the assessment will entail field testing to investigate key properties of the aquifers, such as the storage capacity and the ability of the aquifer to release water.As part of the project the water quality will also be tested to assess the levels of heavy metals, chlorides and other substances, to give some insight into occurrence of contamination of the water supply.“resent investigation of the status of the groundwater reservoirs is necessary to clarify whether present water extraction rates are sustainable,” said WWF’s Aiesha Williams. She noted, too, that increasing demand for water and the potential impacts from climate change may have further detrimental impacts on the coastal aquifers.GWI Acting Director of Investment and Planning, Altaf Gafoor,Wholesale Jerseys, said that the project will entail efforts being made by the water company to first make a quick assessment to determine what physical changes have occurred in the ground water reservoirs.He underscored that about 80 percent of the local potable water needs are met by ground water sources,Cheap NFL Jerseys, thus there is need to pay close attention to the very important resource. As such he referred to the collaboration with the WWF as a ground breaking initiative.“We have done our review, we have done our theoretical write ups and we will move to actual operation… hopefully in another six or eight months we will have final results that will feed into a national strategy,Jerseys NFL Wholesale,” Gafoor noted.He however added that the forthcoming results will not answer all of the questions that may arise as it relates to ground water but will help to bring focus to areas in which resources are required.Another partner in the initiative which is expected to run for an eight-month period will also is the University of Guyana’s Faculty of Technology,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, according to WWF Country Manager, Dr Patrick Williams.Through the partnership effort it is expected that there will be a better understanding of sustainability of groundwater reservoirs and a better ability to identify threats to the aquifers functioning as a source of safe water for the public in the longer term.The results of the assessment will provide invaluable information for water management,Cheap NFL Jerseys, promoting sustainable use of the underground water and provide guidance for further comprehensive studies.