Topic: "Novel Water-Winning Technologies for Hard Rock Environments
Applied to the Island of Tobago"
Presenter: Dr. Utam Maharaj
ABSTRACT
Space-age technologies incorporating images from satellites orbiting the Earth in a novel public-private sector
partnership were used to discover and develop enormous quantities of high quality groundwater for the island of
Tobago. This is the first application of these technologies and of this type of partnership in the Caribbean region,
and Tobago’s long history of conventional groundwater investigations, failed well drilling attempts, combined with
a critical two (2) Million Gallons per Day (MGD) shortfall made it a “worst-case” island test venue for new groundwater
discoveries.
Nevertheless, the use by the client of a “shared-risk” contracting approach, combined with the application by the
contractor of the novel “mega watersheds” paradigm and an advanced state-of-the-art exploration programme, resulted
in the identification of 39.8 MGD of previously undetected, renewable groundwater resources in the prevailing crystalline
bedrock of the island. The contractor subsequently drilled and actually developed over 4 MGD of sustainable, spring-quality
groundwater, all within one year. Under the contract, the contractor was only paid for water actually developed
(and tested) and also warrantied the wells for one year.
Tobago’s present and future water problems were resolved in a single year’s work, using best-available technology,
at minimal risk to the client. This project has proven that with proper risk-sharing arrangements the best expertise
and provider of technology for groundwater exploration and development can be acquired to develop new sources of
groundwater in difficult geological terrains not previously thought to be available.
BIO
Dr. Utam Maharaj has spent sixteen (16) years in the petroleum industry involved in the development and introduction
of technology to Petrotrin's production operations. During this time he was also involved in their produced water
pollution assessments and clean-up, in addition to evaluating the Company's strategic tarsands resource with respect
to its geology, reserves and processibility. From 1998 to 2002 he served as Director, Water Resources where he
was heavily involved in the pursuit of new water sources for both islands of Trinidad and Tobago. He served as
Project Manager of the Tobago Groundwater project, the topic of the current presentation. He later functioned as
advisor of the subsequent Trinidad Groundwater Project.
The presenter possesses a PhD in Physcial Chemistry and a BSc. (Honors) in Biochemistry from University of Toronto,
and a Masters in Petroleum Engineering and Management from the University of the West Indies. Much of the work
that the presenter was involved in have been published internationally. He currently has thirty-two (32) publications,
of which nine (9) are in academia, fourteen (14) in the petroleum field and nine (9) related to water. He has written
a Chapter in the recently published book titled "Modern Groundwater Exploration" issued this year.
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