By Cassandra Khan
OVER the past two years, the government has expended over $21.5 billion to enhance the water supply across Guyana, according to Minister of Housing and Water, Collin Croal.
In his address to persons at the Guyana Water Incorporated’s (GWI)’s World Water Day Exhibition at the National Cultural Centre, on Tuesday, Minister Croal said that the government is cognisant that the delivery of a reliable supply of clean and safe water is a basic right for all citizens.
This, he said, is in keeping with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Number Six: “Water and sanitation for all by 2030.”
The specific targets included in government’s plan to deliver quality, safe and reliable water to citizens are increasing access to potable water from 96 per cent to 100 per cent by 2025; increasing treated water coverage from 52 per cent to 90 per cent on the coast and increasing access to potable water supply from 60 per cent to 100 per cent for hinterland and riverine communities by 2024.
So far, efforts to improve the quality of water available, upgrade infrastructure, repair and replace broken mains, expand water coverage to more citizens and replace old transmission mains have resulted in more than 11,000 citizens gaining first-time and improved access to potable water.
This year, some $4.9 billion has been set aside in Budget 2022 for the improvement of the water sector.
Additionally, $410.7 million was expended in 2021 to increase access and improve the water supply systems in hinterland communities, while $394.5 million is budgeted this year under the Hinterland Water Supply Programme.
Improved access to potable and treated water is necessary because, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), contamination of water poses the greatest risk to drinking water safety.
“Globally, at least two billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces. As a result, each year an estimated 485,000 deaths are directly caused by diarrhoea. Emerging contaminants like pharmaceuticals, pesticides, PFASs and micro plastics are growing public concerns. More than two billion people live in water-stressed countries and this is expected to be exacerbated in some regions as a result of climate change and population growth,” Minister Croal said.
He added that, annually, there are 1.7 billion cases of diarrhoea among children younger than five years old and there is an estimated 446,000 children younger than five years old that died from diarrhea, mostly in developing countries like Guyana.
While noting that the numbers are staggering and scary but are real, he said that the situation requires collective action.
Minister Coral said that the large bodies of surface water that Guyana has is easy to be taken for granted.
“It is not uncommon for us to see leaky taps, broken mains, taps that have not been turned off, animals waste contaminating water sources and other similar incidents happening in and around our communities despite the efforts of GWI to educate the populace on the dangers of these practices,” Minister Croal said in his plea for persons to preserve and conserve on water.
