-says caution tape and traffic cones vandalized

THE Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) has responded to an article titled ‘Main city artery is death trap,’ published in the Kaieteur News of Tuesday, July 8.The water company has apologised to commuters for any inconvenience the road excavation at Saffon Street, Charlestown has caused, but insists that the excavation was necessary to fix a breakage which occurred on June 2 on a deteriorated portion of a distribution line.

After the repairs had been completed and the excavated portion of Saffon Street had been restored, GWI said, it was alerted to another breakage on the same distribution line, which occurred on June 25.

Following repairs to the pipeline, GWI’s Operations Team erected traffic cones and put up caution tape around the excavated portion of the road, so that the distribution line could be observed in the event of another breakage. It was determined that the aged pipeline needed further examination before restoring the road, since two breakages had occurred on the same distribution line, GWI said.

Subsequently, GWI observed that the safety barriers erected at the site had been vandalized, as depicted on the front page of the Kaieteur News of June 8, and that the traffic cones had been removed and the caution tape destroyed at several sections of the excavated area.

Having determined that no further breakage had occurred on the pipe in question, GWI said, repairs are currently being carried out on the excavated portion of the street with the aim of effecting its complete restoration by July 11.

(Michel Outridge)