…water treatment plant in village to be repaired

FOLLOWING several years of neglect, the water treatment plant in the community of Buxton, East Coast Demerara (ECD) will resume operations by the end of this year, Managing Director of Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), Dr. Richard Van-West Charles told residents during an outreach in the community on Sunday.

Residents were made aware that eight filters have already been imported and will be installed in a few weeks while a recently activated overhead tank will be utilised to pressurise the system.

Van-West Charles says that GWI is mandated under the constitution to provide access to good quality services and wants to set its standards as high as that of North America.
However, even as these improvement plans are underway, it was stressed that the community is $116M in debt to the water company with $89M of that debt belonging to unmetered customers.

As such, the Buxton residents were urged to pay their bills on time as finances are needed to complete the works and a total of $6M is spent on electricity to power the community’s water supply system. Residents are being invited within the next two months to visit the GWI office to have their services regularized within which period no court action will be taken against them.

However, delaying beyond this deadline will see those found with illegal connections facing swift court action. The company will also work to clean pipelines; an act previously hindered due to intermittent water supply and, by the year’s end, intends to further increase its water supply service to 24 hours in the community.

To achieve this, GWI’s Executive Director of Operations, Mr. Dwayne Shako, pointed out that the water distribution system is another area which will be addressed. Shako states that there are 300 cubic meters of water being produced in the community every hour but residents are still unable to receive same to the top floor of their homes or to the extent of 24 hours.

He attributed this to a large quantity of water being wasted due to leaks. Van-West Charles called for greater cooperation between the utility company and citizens as the company seeks to address these cases of leaks through house-to-house visitations over the next six months to a year.

Throughout this visitation period, the GWI will capitalize on the opportunity to install meters where necessary as a means to further narrow the gap between metered and unmetered customers.

Only recently a GWI crew was attacked in the village and their vehicle set ablaze. Van-West Charles had described the attack as “lawless” which “cannot be accepted.” The attack occurred on March 15 in Buxton-Friendship and resulted in the destruction of a vehicle transporting six GWI workers, by means of arson by an irate resident whose meter the workers aimed to disconnect. At a press conference, it was revealed that the workers, namely Christopher Semple, Lennox Douglas, Claremont Cato, Tevin Howard, Richard Kilkenny and Kevin Blair, were forced to flee the scene in fear for their lives.

According to the managing-director, on the previous day, (March 14), a crew of GWI’s staff was on Company Road, Friendship, East Coast Demerara, carrying out disconnections when an altercation with a resident obstructed the work of the crew members. The following day (March15), the workers returned, but were approached by the irate resident from the other side of Company Road. The resident then sprayed the interior and exterior of the company’s transport vehicle with gasoline from a soda bottle.

Van-West Charles said the man, Dexroy Todd, who also wielded a cutlass, then lit his cigarette lighter and set the vehicle ablaze, prompting a swift escape by the crew members who were both surprised and shaken.
The crew workers then went to the Vigilance Police Station where they reported the matter.