Water has been restored to Mayor and City Council (M&CC) entities that were disconnected last week and the municipality and Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) have agreed to another meeting on April 1, where there would hopefully be “an exchange of cheques”.
This was disclosed to this newspaper by Georgetown Mayor, Hamilton Green yesterday. GWI had severed water supply to several of the city’s entities last Thursday over arrears but later said it had restored it after a letter was received from the M&CC requesting a meeting to discuss the issue.
The meeting was held on Monday and yesterday Green said that the meeting, which also included Minister of Housing and Water, Harrinarine Nawbatt and Minister of Local Government, Kellawan Lall, was amicable. He said that Lall urged the two parties to find a way forward and work together to resolve the issues amicably.
The water company had stated that the municipality had owed it some $141M since 2004 and Green yesterday declared that “they are conceding that the original figure seems rather high”. Noting that the issue was “rather complex”, he said that the council was “prepared to go forward in the spirit of friendship”.
He said that before the next meeting the water company is to work on the figures while for the city, the issue of “what we should be getting taxes from” and where the water is being supplied to will be discussed.
In a statement last Thursday the council said that they had received a bill of $1.7M for water supply to the 1763 monument but “this facility has always been the responsibility of the Office of the President and never was the obligation of the Mayor and City Council”. It had also contended that GWI has denied responsibility to pay taxes for the North Ruimveldt and Kingston Well facilities.
A GWI statement at the same time had said that the $50M it asked the council to pay by last Wednesday, hence the disconnection, was only part of the $141M that the municipality owed GWI since 2004. Green said by the next meeting there would hopefully be an “exchange of cheques”.
