The potable water supply system has received another significant boost with the new $400M Cotton Tree Water Treatment Plant in Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice which was recently commissioned by President Bharrat Jagdeo and would benefit some 15,000 consumers.
In recent years there has been a steady improvement in the potable water supply system throughout the country as the government continues to demonstrate its commitment towards improvement of living conditions.
Of course, there is still a lot be done to bring the potable supply to the desired level of adequacy and efficiency, but credit must be given to the government for vastly improving it from a near state of collapse  and where most residents were without domestic supply. Large numbers of people across the country had to fetch water from long distances, use water from trenches or depended on rain for domestic use.
Perhaps the pace at which these improvements were was a bit slow, but it was not an easy situation by any means  because there were so many things to fix and finance was scarce and the situation was compounded by the huge US$2.5 billion debt burden. However, now that the latter has been renegotiated and reduced by half, there is now more funds available for developmental purposes. And one can observe that ever since the debt reduction became reality the pace of development has definitely climbed.
As President Jagdeo noted “we are making progress”, and he noted that the country has to overcome its past which was characterised by under development.
He alluded to the huge amount of debt that had been accumulated, and that “today, because we have successfully dealt with this issue”, there is more room for development and more of the resources can be spent back on the people.
He said even at the national level, persons have recognised that whilst the rest of the region has continued accumulating debt, Guyana has moved towards sustainability.
The President also observed that: “We have a lot of water, but potable water is very costly because we have to purify it to get to people. Sometimes we have too much water and sometimes we have too little, like the last drought we had, and the provision of potable water will continue to take a central role in the future. You have to understand that these facilities, as I said before, are not going to come all at once. Poor countries have to grow their way, they have to work hard to get out of poverty and to develop. We are doing this every day.´ He expressed the hope that those whom the new facility will serve will make the best use of it, using it responsibly and not wasting water.
The latter is a sore issue because many people who still do not appreciate the fact, that even though “Guyana is the land of many waters” it costs a lot to be processed and purified and transmitted and therefore they do not use water with care. It is disgusting to see people leaving on taps or have leaky pipes in their yards. This is one of the problems which have to be tackled expeditiously as it is wastage of scarce resources which this country cannot afford.
The GWI slogan “water is life” is so true because without this invaluable commodity no living matter could exist.
Today a lack of potable water supply in many parts of the world results in many deaths and outbreaks of water-borne diseases resulting in tremendous suffering.
Water-borne diseases kill at least 3.4 million people every year, making them collectively more lethal than AIDS, according to the World Health Organisation.
“Water is in the top rank of hazards to human health,” said Jamie Bartram, Coordinator of the WHO’s Water, Sanitation and Health Programme. “This is a big health problem and the people who are really suffering are the poor in developing countries, especially children.”
An international conference in Bonn called for action to halve the numbers without sanitation by 2015, but agencies said more could be done sooner. United Nations figures show that a sixth of the world’s population lacks adequate access to safe drinking water and 2.4 billion people live without basic sanitation.
“That has a tremendous impact on mortality and living standards,” said Robert Fraser who coordinates water and sanitation efforts in East Africa for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
Diarrhoea is the major killer, with 2.2 million people dying every year from diarrhoeal diseases, including cholera. But disability and incapacitating illnesses, in part caused by contaminated water (even when they are not termed water-borne diseases), are ruining the lives of many others in the developing world.
We in Guyana are fortunate not to be faced with such hazards and therefore should do our utmost to care our potable water supply system because after all it is for our benefit.