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400’ well to save Berbice fish farm
Shabna Ullah
At Number 22 Bel Air Village, West Coast Berbice, Freddie & Sons Artesian Well Services gets down to work, drilling a well for a fish farm where fish are dying because of a lack of water in the ponds.
After the 400-ft well is completed the farmer will be able to have a constant supply of water and be able to save the remaining fish. Stabroek News visited the site and spoke to Freddie Persaud of Number 4 Village who established the artesian well business a few years ago.
He explained that along with his nine employees he dug a small makeshift pond on the farm and a pump was placed into it. The water then has to go through a drilling pipe and rotate before going back into the pond.
"After the drilling pipes are removed a 4" pressure pipe with filter is sunk where the water table is situated at the bottom of the earth.
A lot of white sand is found there and once the pressure pipe is sent down the sand clamps it into place, making it impossible for it to move," he explained.
He related that he encountered rocks a few times when he tried to drill but he gets past such obstacles with the use of a 'diamond tit-bit'.
"Some people do not find water when they try to drill but I find water all the time. Nothing is too hard for me because I always put God first," said Persaud, who constructed a 50-ft kite two years ago.
He has drilled many other wells for agricultural purposes such as for rice, cattle and poultry farming. Though drilling is not a regular occupation, and the venture is not so economically viable, Persaud said he enjoys bringing relief to farmers and providing employment.
He has had contracts with the Ministry of Education through the World Bank to drill wells at two schools in Berbice and two in Demerara so far.
He had also done work in Essequibo.
A re-migrant from New York, the businessman said he worked with a company that was engaged in this trade. "My employer started to sub(-contract) jobs to me and eventually I decided to undertake projects on my own," he stated.
Persaud said the late Minister of Agriculture, Satyadeow Sawh met him in New York and encouraged him to return to Guyana and provide the artesian well service to farmers.
He willingly took up the challenge but found that the equipment was too expensive to import. Determined not to let that hinder his plans, he decided to fabricate the equipment by putting together a few pieces of materials.
In New York he also did painting, scaffolding, brick-laying and roofing - using hot and cold tar, shingles and other types on high rise buildings.
Some of his contracts included the Nassau College, Rykers Island Prison and 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan, the NY Field Office of the FBI. He recalled that he had done work on the World Trade Center building in New York a few days before it was demolished in the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001. | 
