Dear Editor,
I would like to highlight the poor customer service being meted out to residents of Cummings Lodge by the Guyana Water Inc.
On Monday February 14, 2011, I awoke at 5:30 hrs to find no water in the pipelines. I was informed by GWI’s call centre at around 9:00 hrs that there was an electrical problem and GPL was informed. I did a follow-up at around 11:30 hrs and spoke to PRO Mr Timothy Austin himself, who was in a meeting at the time so I could not discuss the matter in detail with him. At 3:00 pm I called back GWI and was told that GPL had still not responded. Half an hour later a resident called me to say that a GPL vehicle had just arrived at the pump site. I rushed to see the extent of works that had to be performed and got a shock. One of the GPL crew took a long rod and flipped back one fuse on top of the post next to the pump then the pump attendant turned it on and that was it. Less than five minutes work. Thousands of residents in this village could not get potable water supplied to their homes for half of a day because GWI and GPL basically could not turn the pump from off to on.
I would like the senior officials of GWI, especially Mr Timothy Austin to learn a lesson from this. On every occasion these officials interact with the public you hear about extension of the water network and the hundreds of millions of dollars spent to improve the livelihood of citizens. We do not want them to quantify the service the people deserve; we want quality. This was not a case where one household was affected and they had to wait upon a maintenance crew; this was a massive village that consists of more than twenty-five streets. I would like the Minister Irfaan Ali who seems to be pro-active to investigate the operations of this well.
Yours faithfully,
H Dass
