IN keeping with the government’s target of 100% access to water across the country, the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) will be constructing 22 new water wells to the tune of $800 million this year in the hinterland areas of Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine.

The GWI indicated that access to water has been extended to about 96 per cent of the country’s geography, leaving just the hinterland communities to complete that 100% access.

At a press conference, on Thursday last, GWI’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Shaik Baksh, explained that the plan over the next five years is to make access to water easier for citizens across Guyana, including those in the hinterland areas and those communities without access to running water.

“Our hinterland water strategy, we hope within five years to get 100 per cent water access across the county, but that is a challenge because it is the deep riverine areas, deep mountainous areas for Region Eight, but we have been moving; we’re drilling 22 wells this year in the hinterland. We are planning and brainstorming ways to ensure that we could carry out this strategy,” Baksh explained.

Since the Hinterland Water Supply programme commenced in 2021, six wells have already been completed while an additional seven wells have been contracted to private contractors. He further stated that the remaining nine wells will be constructed during the second half of the year and are expected to be completed by the end of December 2021.

“And a lot of those wells in the hinterland are being built in-house by GWI and saving us a lot of money. Not all the wells, but many wells are being drilled by GWI, so we are on stream to achieve our hinterland targets, but more is to be done; so each year we will try to get to those hard areas to access and to provide the water service to those communities,” stated Baksh.

He indicated that the well-drilling process does not end with just the construction of a well but also includes the setting up of distribution networks, storage and outtake systems.

Baksh noted that in addition to the wells in the hinterland areas, GWI also intends to target several squatting areas that are now being regularised to provide them with access to running water.

“You do have other areas coming up where you have squatting and we are regularising those squatter areas; those will be new. Across the country you have a regularization of small numbers about forty or fifty and we have to provide water for them,” Baksh expressed.