Dear Editor,
In an article published on May 14 in the Guyana Chronicle, Minister of Housing and Water, Irfaan Ali stated, “that over the past five years the percentage of persons across the country with access to potable water has increased from 71% to over 98% resulting in the promotion of healthier lives and improvement of economic activities throughout the country.”
This claim by Minister Ali lacks credibility. I live within sighting distance from GWI’s Shelter Belt Water Treatment facilities (SBWTF) on Vlissengen Road from which I receive my domestic water supply. For over twenty years the water quality from this facility has been on a downward spiral, and even today the water is still unfit to drink (ie it is not potable) since it is distributed from SBWTF with discoloration, insufficient flocculents, filtration and chlorination, and escaped/dissolved organic matter in the water deteriorates as it flows through the system creating a foul ‘rotten egg’ smell on discharge. Every two weeks or so I have to backwash the filters of my filtration system at considerable expense to remove the muck and possible harmful bacteria captured from the water. If Minister Ali disputes these claims, I wish to invite him and his technical staff through this medium to visit my facility to get a first-hand account of the poor water quality I receive day in and day out, which is contrary to his claims of overall improvements in the country’s water quality service.
Over the years I have had to depend on commercial bottled water for drinking purposes and the GWI supply for other uses. Minister Ali is fully aware that despite significant capital and operating interventions, SBWTF is not producing water of generally accepted WHO standards, and therefore his primary duty is to inform water users of the dangers of drinking water of questionable quality without at least boiling it before use, rather than extolling questionable achievements by his ministry. I cannot speak for GWI water users in other water districts, but their numerous complaints in the daily papers about water quality and supply reliability, speak for themselves.
Minister Ali’s priority and that of his National Water Council at this time should be to ensure that the water produced by GWI is of potable quality with assured supply reliability rather than seeking to extend with its limited resources GWI’s haphazard reach to provide questionable water supply with the objective of short-term political gains. GWI at this time needs good governance, sound financial management for a quality based reliable water deliverable service and a development strategy within its financial and technical capability to meet the potable water needs of all Guyanese.
Yours faithfully,
Charles Sohan
