Dear Editor,
GWI wishes to express gratitude to your publication for highlighting the complaint made by an Alberttown resident regarding a sewage overflow in the Tuesday November 1, 2011 edition of your publication.
The company wishes to state that the sewage overflow was caused by a major blockage within the Alberttown community located some distance from the customer’s overflowing sewage chamber.
Upon visiting the area, GWI’s sanitation team identified the blockage and immediately commenced work to rectify the problem. Removal of the blockage would have significantly eased the overflowing sewage chamber at the customer’s premises. However, GWI’s sanitation team encountered a barrage of unwanted objects within the blocked sewer line which created tremendous difficulty when attempting to remove the many objects thrown into the system by delinquent customers. According to GWI’s Sanitation Manager, these objects included large pieces of clothing, plastic bottles, concrete blocks, sand, diapers and sanitary napkins.
GWI has appealed to all residents of Georgetown to desist from dumping garbage into the sewerage system and has initiated a public education programme in specially targeted communities and schools which utilize the system.
However, customers have continued to abuse the system resulting in significant blockages in communities such as Charlestown, Alberttown and Albouystown.
GWI wishes to advise all customers affected by sewage overflows that priority is placed on such complaints, but while GWI’s teams may respond promptly, continued dumping of garbage into the system extends the time needed by our teams to rectify overflows. The Alberttown blockage was addressed within the stipulated time indicated to the customer. However, due to the amount of garbage found within the sewer line, the blockage was not cleared until Friday, October 28.
The company wishes to appeal once again to all customers utilizing the sewage system to only flush waste matter and toilet paper and to desist from dumping garbage via sewerage chambers.
Unwanted materials create blockages which result in several overflows. These are a danger to the health of our customers and hamper GWI’s response time to overflows.
While GWI has embarked on several upgrade projects (most recently in the Queenstown area), the rate at which customers continue to abuse the system exceeds that of our upgrade programmes.
In fact, despite the publicity received following the discovery of over 3000 condoms at Sixth and Light Streets, GWI’s sanitation team is currently addressing another massive blockage at that location. Today, November 1, our Sanitation Manager reported the discovery of enormous amounts of garbage found within the sewer line at Sixth and Light Streets containing plastic bottles, food containers, styrofoam boxes, sanitary napkins and several articles of clothing.
A Georgetown Sewerage Rehabilitation Programme is planned for 2012; however should customers continue to dump unwanted garbage into the system, this project will yield dismal results.
We invite customers to report instances of abuse via our Customer Service Call Centre on 227-8701 or via the e-mail address customercallcentre@gwi.gy
Customers can also send us private messages via our Facebook page available at www.facebook.com/everydropcounts All reports will be treated with strict confidentiality.
Once again, Guyana Water Incorporated wishes to thank your publication for highlighting the problems which affect our customers. We remain firm in our commitment to resolve all challenges with the sewerage system.
Yours faithfully,
Timothy Austin
Public Relations Officer
