THE Ministry of Housing and Water, through the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), kicked off its customer service programme “Camp Resolution” Saturday on the Essequibo Coast, as part of its continued efforts to improve the water sector.

GWI’s “Camp Resolution” would see visits by GWI teams to several locations across the country and was launched simultaneously yesterday in Division One at Charity Primary School, Adventure Nursery and Good Hope Primary, which saw the GWI team resolving complaints from 9:00 h to 15:00 h.

Minister of Housing and Water, Mr. Irfaan Ali listens to residents concerns at Adventure Nursery School

Customers had the opportunity to interact with the Minister of Housing and Water, Mr. Irfaan Ali, as well as GWI Senior officials including GWI Chief Executive Office (ag), Mr. Yuri Chandisingh, with the ‘Camp’ serving as mobile GWI offices, offering customers all the services they expect from GWI including leak repair, billing queries, bill payments and the installation of new service connections.

Minister Ali, speaking to the media at the Charity Housing Scheme, took the time to remind consumers that the basic principle behind “Camp Resolution” is changing the image of GWI and creating the fundamental basis on which it was set up.

It is an organisation that is people driven, people centred and people oriented,” Minister Ali explained, noting that water is a service type of operation and affects persons at the “most critical level of society”.

So Camp Resolution is re-branding the whole image of GWI, ensuring we create that linkage between the customer and the organisation; ensuring that issues of transparency, effectiveness, efficiency are demonstrated physically in terms of how quickly we respond to people’s concerns and complaints and resolve these issues,” he stated.

He said it provided an opportunity for them to communicate with persons in terms of its plans, and investments.

A staffer deals with a resident

Here in Region Two (Pomeroon/Supenaam) today, we were not only able to resolve individual issues but, for example, in Good Hope and some of the other areas that we have metering that were estimated, we were able to direct all our resources – management, human, financial – to ensure that all the meters are read so that you have actual readings of these bills,” he stated.

In Charity, he noted that there is an issue of an inadequate supply of water because the well is under-performing and a decision was taken to charge only 60 per cent of the minimum annual charges for this area.

He said persons were also enlightened about the more than $20M Somerset well that is presently under construction and which he visited. It should be completed within two and a half months, which will see the water supply provided on a daily basis compared to the three day supply now available.

In addition, the minister alluded to the $450M iron removal plant with the total investment in Region Two being in excess of $1B.

We have a comprehensive strategy that we think people have to buy into. We have to create ownership of the plans and ownership of the vision. People on the ground must feel associated with the vision and associated with the plan of the entity so that together we can change the whole culture,” Ali insisted.

Minister Ai noted that very importantly, too, is the subject of education, with the customers understanding the responsibility of conserving water and paying for the water. He said, “The charges are basic charges and if we are to have a sustainable water sector into the future then we will have to deal with these issues extensively.”

The team also took the opportunity to look at some of the issues it can address in the 2010 budget and disclosed that there are a few access roads that need to be completed in the Charity area which are going to be catered for in the 2010 budget.

He noted that Region Two was especially selected to start the programme so the entity “can have a feel”, explaining, “We know in Region Two that we don’t have a problem with water in terms of pressure and flow. Our major problem in Region Two is the quality of water, that is the level of iron content in the water; and then you have the billing issues.”

Head of Field Services Operation, GWI, Mr. Codette Joseph, similarly conceded that the exercise assisted the division in solving all the operational problems such as leakages, installation of new collections and the quality of water.

In terms of the quality of water, he noted that direct action has been taken to start flushing the mains to bring relief to customers faced with this problem.

It is a one day exercise; but that does not stop the customers from coming in to us and have their problems resolved immediately,” he encouraged.

GWI Division One Manager, Mr. Ravindra Deonaraine, added that the exercise will help to enlighten people of the community about the interventions in the different areas, especially in terms of low pressure and quality.

Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Housing and Water, Mr. Emil McGarrell, reiterated that “Camp Resolution” is part of the ministry’s and GWI’s effort to really address issues in the communities and attempt to bring the services of GWI to the communities to resolve problems, stressing that the efforts of GWI, as part of its turnaround plan, is really to resolve a lot of the issues that have been affecting communities for a long time.

McGarrell reiterated that GWI and the ministry as whole are looking at measures that will ultimately improve the service all together for its customers, both in terms of flow and pressure but “this will take some time”.

The “Camp Resolution” initiative comes on the heels of the successes of the “One Stop Shop” which Minister of Housing and Water had assured will continue.

In March, the Ministry of Housing and Water embarked on the “One Stop Shop” programme to decentralise its services to people across the administrative regions of Guyana.

The next stop for “Camp Resolution” will be on the East Bank of Demerara at Soesdyke, Grove and Eccles on October 17, 2009.