Swan residents call for better roads, access to potable water for all  

The potable water supply at Swan Village along the Soesdyke-Linden highway, East  Bank Demerara, is being upgraded but residents living outside of the network are calling for it to be expanded.

The village is undergoing a much-needed upgrade to its potable water supply from the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), but Savitri Ali, a resident living just outside of the village, is concerned about the long wait for access to potable water and the need for roads to be built there.

GWI upgraded the service provided last year by drilling a new well and started the expansion of the network throughout the village. In an invited comment, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Shaik Baksh said the distribution started but only households within boundaries outlined will have access.

“We finished the well and we are now doing the distribution network with the community. They are laying the lines right now and it should be finished by the end of the month,” Baksh told the News Room.

But, Ali, who has been living close to the Indigenous village for 14 years, said although many promises are being made, proper roads and access to potable water are still unattainable.

During an interview with the News Room on Wednesday, Ali said she is worried the nearby creek is running dry due to the sunny weather.

“We don’t have proper road, we don’t have water to drink.

“If the rain doesn’t fall, we don’t get water. The creek dry up and the rain fall a little bit and we get water but just now that will done and we won’t have water to get again until the rain fall,” Ali said.

She explained that there is another creek at Marudi that persons also go to but the distance to travel is far. In addition, with the well upgraded at Swan Village, it was expected that access to better quality water would be made available.

Unfortunately, due to the boundaries where the connection can supply water, persons living on the outskirts of the village may not have access.

“We have extended the old network as far as we could but there might be some people way outside of that. We can’t reach that,” Baksh said.

Due to the deteriorated condition of the roads there, vehicles do not want to travel into the village.

For the first time last year a primary school was commissioned at the village and during the event, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Nigel Dharamlall announced that a new access road will be constructed in the community.

At the time, the Swan Village Chairman, Fenton Ragunath, said the construction was delayed due to a shortage of stones.