GUYANA Water Inc. (GWI) has announced that tampering with its resources is gathering steam and, as such, it has launched a campaign to arrest the problem.
The drive, dubbed ‘Stamp Out Tampering Campaign’, through which customers will be rewarded for reporting any illegal activities in relation to the company’s fixtures, such as its mains, meters and such like, was started yesterday. Although no budget has been set for the purpose and the utility is not too sure of how successful it will prove to be, the hope is that the move will see persons making reports to GWI that would result in them earning  $1,000 towards their bills.
GWI said it is not expected to cost any additional monies as the undertaking falls within its routine activity of checking its mains and conducting spot checks at various locations.
It said, despite the many illegal acts against its infrastructure, the thrust seems to be focused more on unlawful connections which amount to tampering.
GWI said the idea to initiate such a drive is due to the number of calls to its offices about illicit connections, reconnections and similar unlawful acts that the company felt it had to reward persons for reporting such cases.
Director of Customer Service and Commercial Relations,  Earl Aaron, explained that, for this year, they have received 130 such calls and were able to address 126 of them.
He said people making reports can just call and
operators will receive the complaints and pass them on to the related department. All that is required for the caller to supply is the account number of the customer. Once the report is found to be genuine, the caller will be rewarded with the money in his or her account.
The account does not have to be in the name of the person making the report, nor would the identification of the reporter be requested. However, GWI is asking persons not to make prank calls as this would cost it whenever a crew makes a visit and finds that it is a hoax.
In addition, GWI is giving customers who are guilty of tampering and illegal connections to make that report against themselves and no penalties will be applied. They can visit the company’s offices where a payment arrangement can be worked out.

OFFER
This offer will only be available for one week after which all calls will be investigated and dealt with accordingly, Aaron said.
Speaking at the GWI Head Office, on Vlissengen Road, Georgetown, he said, of the 70,000 customers listed on the network, 30,000 are presently disconnected and hundreds of them continue to access water by different means.
Aaron explained that, while some persons reconnect themselves after disconnection, there are those who pay others to reconnect them.
He revealed, too, that there are cases where contractors working with GWI go into an area and effect disconnections and customers pay their employees to reconnect them.
Aaron said it amounts to a waste of the customer’s time as the water company will, usually, make unannounced checks at the listed addresses for disconnection to ensure that the job was done and, if there is evidence that the customer is still receiving water, then the person will be charged the tampering fee, the water disconnected and  possible legal action taken against the errant customer.
He pointed out that, in many cases, customers hide their tampering acts within drains and trenches which pose  health risks to either themselves or others.
Aaron said, when lines hidden in trenches and drains are breached and the water is turned off according to  schedule, the flow from the drains ends up in the pipelines and, when the pressure is restored, that dirty water travels to other persons facilities causing them to be contaminated.
Meanwhile, GWI now charges a $25,000 tampering fee for domestic customers while $50,000 is charged for commercial users.
GWI is urging  customers to report tampering and illegal service connections on telephone number 227-8701/03/04.  For more information on the dangers of tampering, customers can e-mail GWI’s Public Relations Department via pro@gwi.gy, log on to www.gwiguyana.com or via social media at www.facebook.com/everydropcountsgy