‘Muddy’ water following disruption of service drives ‘Stevedore’ residents nuts

FOLLOWING a disruption of service by the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) in central Georgetown on Wednesday, March 17, residents of Stevedore Housing Scheme were on Thursday morning horrified to find that the water coming through their taps was dark and discoloured.
The disruption, which was initially scheduled to last for approximately nine hours in order to facilitate pipe relocations and interconnections along Mandela Avenue, met with technical difficulties on Wednesday, according to an update posted to the GWI’s Facebook page.
The update further noted that the service was expected to be restored by 02:00 hours on Thursday.

Unfortunately, the deadline was not met, and residents of Central Georgetown took to Facebook and WhatsApp to express their frustration. A later update to GWI’s Facebook page on Thursday stated that while water pressure was restored at approximately 06:00 hours, it was expected to be somewhat reduced in some areas.
But when the pressure did finally rise in ‘Stevedore’ around 06:00 hours, residents were far from happy.
“Quite frankly, the water was darker than the colour of my shoe; it looked as though somebody mixed mud and water and pumped it through the pipe,” one visibly annoyed resident told the Guyana Chronicle on Thursday.

“It was ridiculous! You couldn’t bathe or brush your teeth with it; you couldn’t make tea with it, or cook with it! And the water wasn’t restored last night; it came back this morning, sometime after 6:30 hours. So, imagine waiting to get ready for work, and then when the water does come through the pipe, you can’t even use it. You couldn’t even throw bleach in it and use it; it was just plain ridiculous. Unto when I left for work at about quarter to eight, the water was still that colour. I ended up using water that I had filled from the day before,” the woman concluded.

One young resident who declined to give her name, also shared her experience with the Guyana Chronicle, saying: “The water gone long; unto lunchtime when the pressure drop again, I couldn’t do nothing with it. Unto now nobody ain’t get to bathe or do nothing.”
The expansion of Mandela Avenue is a Ministry of Public Works project, and the interconnection of pipelines are being done under the purview of the Chinese firm, Sinhohydro, and executed by several sub-contractors, with the guidance of the GWI. It is unclear whether the residents of other areas had a similar experience to those of Stevedore Housing Scheme.

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

All our printed editions are available online
emblem3
Subscribe to the Guyana Chronicle.
Sign up to receive news and updates.
We respect your privacy.