Residents of Buxton, East Coast Demerara owe a total of $116M to the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) of which $89M belongs to unmetered customers.
This was revealed by the water company during an outreach by its Managing Director, Dr. Richard Van West-Charles on Saturday. GWI, in a release, noted that approximately $6M is spent on electricity alone to power the water supply system in the community.
According to the release, Dr. Van West-Charles took the opportunity to urge residents of Buxton to have their service regularised.
He announced that over the next two months, they will be able to visit GWI’s office to have their service regularised and no court action will be taken against them.
“However, if after the two-month period, residents are found with illegal connections, GWI will be moving swiftly to the courts,” GWI noted.
Meanwhile, the release noted that the community will soon benefit from improved water quality as GWI works to have the treatment plant in the community back in operation by the end of 2018.
According to GWI, eight filters have already been imported and will be installed at the treatment plant within a matter of weeks. An overhead tank has also been activated in the community and GWI will be working to fill that tank, which will then be used to pressurize the system.
The release noted that Buxton has benefited from increased hours of service and GWI will be working to further increase it to 24 hours by the end of 2018. The utility company will also be working to clean the pipelines, which it has not managed to do consistently due to the intermittent supply of water in the past.
“These improvement plans for Buxton were outlined even as the Managing Director pointed out that the community had been neglected and even punished in years gone by.
“He said that companies such as GWI have to operate in accordance with the constitution and ensure that all citizens have access to good quality services,” the release noted.
GWI, he assured, is working to ensure that the quality of service delivered to citizens in Guyana is no different from the services received by persons in North America.
However, in order for this to happen, the utility and the citizens have to work together. This partnership, in particular, is critical to the arresting of leaks, which reduce pressure and compromise the quality of water received by residents.
Meanwhile, GWI’s Executive Director of Operations, Mr. Dwayne Shako pointed out that the water distribution system needs to be addressed before the utility addresses water treatment.
He informed that currently, 300 cubic meters of water is being produced in the community every hour. However, despite this large quantity, residents are still unable to receive 24 hours supply and receive such to the top floor of their homes.
The release noted that this is due to the fact that a large quantity of the water being produced is being wasted.
“Over the next 6 months to a year, GWI’s team will be visiting individual homes to ensure that all leaks are addressed. Additionally, the utility will be installing meters in the community in order to tighten the system.”
