Housing and Water Minister Irfaan Ali yesterday publicly acknowledged the ministry’s responsibility to ensure water flows to fire hydrants but he says that the work will have to involve other responsible agencies.

“I will not say we don’t have a responsibility,” Ali told reporters, “We have to ensure water is in those lines.”  Ali said that in the large housing schemes in particular, hydrants will be needed. He noted that the ministry has established an inter-agency co-coordinating committee to deal with such issues.

Most hydrants are considered white elephants, since they are non-functioning – a situation that has hindered the work of the fire service. Recently, at a fire at Success, East Coast Demerara, fire fighters were forced to do long distance pumping from a canal on the public road about two corners away from the site of the fire. The fire tender ran out of water and this was the only resort.