GUYANA Water Inc. (GWI) yesterday announced their countrywide disconnection activities that are aimed at collecting outstanding water service charges.Customer Services Manager Jeanette Thomas said in a press release that while the disconnection campaign launched in June 2013 initially garnered a large response from customers, the utility is experiencing a decline in revenues since October.

“Customers in particular areas simply refuse to respond to our appeals despite the fact that they are receiving excellent service,” stated Thomas. “We are now forced to remove the entire service of customers who have not made any payments or attempted to resolve their debt with the utility company.”

The customer services manager further explained that the utility launched several initiatives to recover outstanding debts including ‘Wallet-friendly Payment Plans’ which allowed customers to pay their debt in small, flexible amounts. “We also launched another phase of our Community Connect programme,” stated Thomas. “We visited communities in Mahaicony, Timehri, Buxton, Annandale and Enterprise, East Coast of Demerara; unfortunately the response was poor in some communities and GWI will be forced to remove the entire service of these customers who refuse to make any payments.”

Meanwhile GWI Executive Director of Finance, Jaigopaul Ram, stated that “more than 50% of our customer database is in debt and we are forced to take this action because our energy costs continue to increase. We have expanded water service on the East Coast of Demerara and improved our service in Georgetown, East Bank of Demerara and Bartica which has increased electricity costs. We cannot continue to provide water service at such high costs and not receive adequate revenues from our customers.”

In addition to payment plans and community outreach, GWI offered waivers to disconnected customers and customers with large arrears. “This yielded minimal results,” stated GWI’s customer services manager. “We have no option but to disconnect our customers, remove their entire service and have them start the process of registering for a new service again.”

Thomas also said that disconnected customers would be required to visit the nearest GWI branch to register for a new service along with paying the necessary penalties including disconnection fees. “GWI contractors and water service inspectors will be policing communities to ensure that disconnected customers do not illegally reconnect their service or tamper with GWI’s system,” stated the GWI manager.
“Once disconnected, GWI contractors will return all equipment including service connections and saddles to the company; customers will not receive a new service until they have paid and registered for a new service, paid all outstanding debt or signed a payment contract,” Thomas said.

She also noted that GWI contractors have mobilized for the countrywide service removal from Monday, November 18; and GWI Water Service Inspectors will be visiting disconnected customers to inspect for illegal activities or tampering.

“We are appealing to every customer with outstanding payments to visit the nearest branch,” stated Thomas, adding that “having to sign up for a new service and pay disconnection or tampering fees will be a long and arduous task for customers and must be avoided at all costs.”
Written By Michel Outridge