–Minister announces shortly after hearing of community’s plight

By Jared Liddell

RESIDENTS of the little-known community of Lust-en-Rust, some six or so miles from Vreed-en-Hoop, seat of administration for Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), will by weekend have consistent access to potable water after going for years with little or none at all.

The announcement came shortly after leaving the village from Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Susan Rodrigues during a visit to the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) well plant at Westminster, about a mile away from Lust-en-Rust.

According to Minister Rodrigues, one of the two wells at the plant is currently being cleaned out to facilitate the provision of potable water to the fledgling West Bank Demerara (WBD) community.

Currently, the residents of Lust-en-Rust Housing Scheme have little or no access to water, necessitating their having to make the almost 15-minute journey to and from the nearest settlement to get some, or alternatively stocking up on supply from the nearest canal.

During her visit to the Westminster facility, Minister Rodrigues met with Well Maintenance Engineer Kerene Gordon, who brought her up to speed on the project, stating that it is currently in its final phase, and will be ready to pipe water to Rust-en-Lust by weekend.

Taking a certain pride in noting that this was one of the very first projects being undertaken by her ministry since the new PPP/C government took office, Minister Rodrigues said she was moved to take action after being contacted by several Lust-en-Rust residents and learning about their not having access to potable water.
She said that given the new administration’s primary objective is to be ‘people-centered’, one of its top priorities is to bring comfort and a higher standard of living to all Guyanese, regardless of where they live.

The Lust-En-Rust Housing Scheme is presently being supplied with 2.1 million gallons of water per day, but is still experiencing some level of difficulty in terms of water pressure. With the well being cleaned, it is anticipated that it will be able to generate some 2.8 million gallons of water per day to the community, with the expectation that that will significantly increase the pressure level so that everyone can have their fill of the precious commodity.

GWI Director of Operations, Dwayne Shako, who accompanied Minister Rodrigues during her tour of the site, told reporters that he was aware of the problems Lust-en-Rust residents were having with getting water after being alerted to it some time ago, and having since had several meetings with them on the matter. He stated that since having had those discussions, the GWI has been working on finding a solution to the issue.

Shako explained that their limited access to water is largely due to a technical problem the GWI is currently working on to get resolved. He stated that GWI’s engineers have been working feverishly on it, and will continue to do so throughout this week, working day and night if needs be to have the project completed by the coming weekend.

He explained that when the community was being developed, the majority of the house-lots were provided with GWI service lines. But unfortunately, several of those lines were accidentally damaged while weeding, thereby causing lots of water to go waste.

He said that locating those lines where the wastage is occurring is proving problematic at the moment, given the magnitude of the Housing Scheme.
He’s indicated, however, that going forward, the GWI will be looking to locate the source of those leaks, so as to ensure that residents will have access to greater water pressure. Shako further explained that this phase is not the beginning of the process to get water to Lust-en-Rust, but rather a six-month-long journey that is now coming to an end.

Since the new government took office a few short days ago, it has brought the services of the GWI directly under the Ministry of Housing, a move that Minister Rodrigues feels is the best way of ensuring that a cohesive and detailed plan is drawn up and implemented, since both organisations will be working as one, and not two separate entities.