THE Guyana Water Incorporation (GWI) has recovered over $2 billion in debts since the establishment of its Debt Recovery Unit last year.

With an outstanding debt of over $5 billion in 2015, GWI had to act swiftly in order to recover money owed to the company, before the figure grew. Speaking with Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday in Lethem, GWI Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Dr. Richard Van West Charles said when he assumed office less than two years ago, the debt issue was a serious problem.

Prior to the establishment of the unit, debt was not being collected by the company’s former administration.

“For years people were not paying and there was no system in place to recover money that was owed,” he lamented.

Although they have been able to recover some of the outstanding debts, more is yet to be done said, Dr. Charles. One of their first steps to enhance the system was to adjust the billing mechanism by issuing bills every 28 days.

In the past, large amount of bills were not being delivered, said the company’s CEO who noted that they have still not met the 100 per cent delivery, but by zoning the country, they will be able to distribute the bills faster.

It is anticipated that in another two months, each zone will be able to receive their bills on time. The timeliness of the delivery was an issue that had to be rectified because, according to Dr. Charles, by not receiving a bill, persons ended up not paying, and this contributed to the buildup of debts.

“People were not receiving bills, so 75 per cent of the debts we collected were bills from the past and not from the current year,” he said.

METERS FOR EVERYONE

Another issue that they faced was metering. Persons who do not have meters are not obligated to pay, so they intend to “meter” the entire country.

“We get 60 per cent of our revenue from 40 per cent of customers, and those are metered customers… so in order to improve this we will be metering the entire country so we hope to install a minimum of 40,000 meters this year,” said Dr. Charles.

The company has already procured 25,000 meters and hopes to get the rest as soon as possible. Meters ensure that two things are achieved; these are: financially efficient operations and conservation of water, the GWI CEO said.

A lot of water is being wasted in Guyana and the consumption of water will drop because persons would then be obligated to manage their water system after the installation of meters.

“I met a no-charge account when I took office. No-charge meaning persons who were disconnected… when I checked, 50 persons were disconnected and when we did our investigation 49 persons reconnected their systems on their own and were getting free water,” lamented Dr. Charles.

Their services were removed and this is an example for other delinquent persons, said the company’s CEO. GWI is encouraging persons to not tamper with the systems because they will be taken before the court.