Dear Editor,
THE Guyana Water Incorporated wishes to respond to an article published in the Kaieteur News on April 12, titled ‘Five months later, Region 8 residents forced to use creek water as GWI still to complete $5M well.’

Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) wishes to reassure the residents of El Paso that a new well will be completed before the end of August 2021 to provide access to groundwater. GWI has received the sum of $4.5 million from the Mahdia Town Council for the drilling of a new well in this community and a contract was signed with contractor, Fox Services, to undertake drilling of this new well for the sum of $5.1 million for which GWI would have assisted with the additional funds.

Currently, the contractor is drilling a second well for GWI in Port Kaituma, which is intended to assist in the transition from the use of water from the Port Kaituma River. This will provide relief to the residents from using water of poor quality from the Port Kaituma River to groundwater which is of safe quality.
Originally, the contractor was required to drill one well in the Two Mile area – Port Kaituma to supply the residents with access to potable water for the first time. This well was successfully completed and works are currently being done to interconnect it to the new water system before the end of April 2021.

GWI also undertook a study of the possibility to provide the other residents that are supplied with river water with groundwater, which was possible with the drilling of another well. As such, a decision was made to drill a second well in Port Kaituma, since the drilling rig is already mobilised in the community, which is a very expensive cost.

It is expected that this new well will be completed by the end of May, 2021, and the equipment will be mobilised to El Paso within the month of June, 2021. It is expected that this new well will be completed over a period of two to three months thereafter.

GWI continues to work towards improving our services across the hinterland and assures our fellow Guyanese that we are committed to providing safe water to all and are working to achieve this within the shortest possible time.

Sincerely,
Ramchand Jailal
GWI Executive Director of Hinterland Services