Dear Editor,
Guyana Water Inc. wishes to respond to the letter by Ms. Lolita Hicks titled “Water cut off on Saturdays is very inconvenient” and dated February 2, 2007.
Ms. Hicks referred to a water supply disruption for three consecutive Saturdays in Georgetown. As we have indicated through the media, there was a significant blockage within the Lamaha Canal, which was later removed by the East Demerara Conservancy Board. This occurrence was compounded by a GPL power failure at our Shelter-Belt Treatment Plant. However, normal water supply was restored on Monday February 5, 2007.
The writer failed to indicate her place of residence. However, customers within Georgetown are normally served from the Shelter-Belt Plant, as well as from two wells at our Sophia supply plant. Unfortunately, only one well is currently in operation. The second is inoperable due to failure of the rising main in the well. The Company has encountered great difficulty in extracting the well’s equipment to be able to repair or replace it. As a result, customers served by our Sophia location will experience small interruptions to their water supply, as time must be allotted for the Plant’s storage tank to be replenished.
As we stated before in these letter columns, our Shelter-Belt plant has established a profile for pumping water based on customers’ demand. Water is pumped at high-pressure from 6:00 AM to 9:00 AM, 11:00 AM to noon, followed by 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM. These pumping times were adopted on the basis of demand as most customers are at home during these periods of the day. This is done to regulate the water supply, so that all areas are supplied with high-pressure at particular times of the day.
Guyana is referred to as the “Land of many waters”, however GWI is striving to educate our customers about the limitations of our fresh water supplies; hence the need for rationing and conservation.
Pumping water at high pressure for 24 hours, as suggested by the writer, would utilize considerable electricity at an even higher cost to the Company. Electricity already forms a major part of the Company’s expenses. Meeting this expense is made more difficult because of those customers who resist paying their water charges. The Company is providing a product which is expensive to produce and for which it is not adequately compensated.
In response to the writer’s final question regarding maintenance, GWI would like to advise that scheduled maintenance at any of our locations is announced prior to commencement through our PR Department. This is usually done in the form of a radio advisory and television scroll advertisements on appropriate channels.
The Company would like to advise that the letter columns are not an appropriate means to submit queries or complaints to GWI, as significant time elapses before the query is received by the Company for appropriate action. The complaint may not be traceable to the specific problem due to the insufficient information provided in the letter. The questions raised in the original letter by Ms. Hicks could have been answered earlier had the customer called our Customer Call Centre on 227-8701, e-mailed us at gwi@gwiguyana.com or completed our complaint form available at www.gwiguyana.com
Yours faithfully,
Timothy Austin
Public Relations Officer – Guyana Water
Inc.
