NEWLY-appointed Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI), Dr. Richard Van West-Charles says that after-hours call centres are to be established soon to ensure that people have access to a safe product.He stated that the call centre will be operating from 16:00 hrs to midnight in all the administrative regions of Guyana so that the staff can deal with emerging issues quickly.

During an exclusive interview with this newspaper, the new GWI CEO observed that water is a critical component for human health and based on the mission and vision of the company, “we have to ensure that our people have access to potable water countrywide.”

He added that quality water is an important priority and therefore it means that they have to ensure that the public has confidence in the product that they produce.

Van West-Charles said, “We are a public entity and therefore we are acting on behalf of the people and we have to deliver in a very efficient manner water that is of high quality. We can build a relationship in which citizens will appreciate that product and that they themselves can be responsible in ensuring that they do what is required of them, that is payment for water use is met.”

WATER LOSS
However, he acknowledged that at present there is a great loss of water occurring and GWI is also experiencing problems with quality and in water pressure in the lines.

The CEO said GWI wants to ensure these problems are remedied quickly and this can be achieved with the technology that they have and the involvement of the citizenry in helping them to identify where leakages are to stop water loss in the country.

Dr. Van West-Charles added, “I discussed with the senior staff that these things need to be transparent and we’re moving to look at our webpage so when a call comes in the public should be aware of the time the call came in and how long it took the teams in each region to correct that problem.”

SEWERAGE SECTOR
Moreover, the sewerage sector which comes under the ambit of GWI is being looked at and he disclosed that during a recent meeting with the employees the ranking areas which are at risk in terms of the sewerage system were identified.

The CEO noted that there is a project that is addressing some of these issues but they want to ensure that they have a real partnership with the public. He said because it takes two hands to clap to have an efficient functioning system it means they have to do their part in public education. He noted also that education awareness is necessary because people need to be enlightened about what they need to do to safeguard the sewerage system.

WATER QUALITY ANALYSIS
He told this newspaper also that as a priority, the water company will be taking steps to acquire kits to analyse the water quality and that information will be made available to the public in all the regions across Guyana.

He pointed out that they will have the laboratory fully functioning as effectively as it should to ensure all water quality analysis becomes available to the public in a timely manner.

Dr. Van West-Charles stated that it will take some time to order the kits for the water quality analysis to be done in all regions but they are moving ahead to set the standards and guidelines with regard to the number of samples that should be taken in each region.

He said, “It is nothing to be afraid of if there are issues with our water quality – the public needs to know what actions they need to take to make water safe for consumption.”

By Michel Outridge