It is with keen interest that I read both articles published in the Kaieteur News editions of July 3 and July 4 respectively. The former related to concerns raised regarding the need for the upgrading of the GWI water distribution system in Bartica, while the latter was GWI’s response to those concerns. It is somewhat of a coincidence that many of the same things that were said by then president Bharrat Jagdeo in April, 2004 at the commissioning of the $450M treatment plant at Bartica were repeated in GWI’s response. This facility was supposed to provide “fresh drinking water” to Bartica households 24 hours a day. Strangely enough, the metering system was supposed to commence in July of that same year, 2004, that is.
Can GWI please say why after more than 9 years this “modern water treatment plant” is not fulfilling all the promises made so many years ago? Why is it that after 9 years the GWI is still talking about the installation of meters which, of course, should help to deter many consumers from indulging in wastage of such a precious resource as clean “fresh drinking water”?
Is it possible for Barticians to know why after 9 years large black water tanks can be seen at virtually every home in Bartica? Ask every home builder, draughtsman/architect and building contractor and the majority will tell you that a trestle must be included in the home construction plan so as to cater for water storage. What has caused the water treatment plant to fail to meet expectations?
Is it that the population at Bartica has grown at an alarming rate? I must assume that the treatment plant was built with some population growth taken into consideration. If not then the planning for this project was extremely poorly done. How can you build a treatment plant for a community without factoring in population growth? If this was done then why did it take so long for upgrades to be implemented when the people of Bartica were not benefiting from a 24-hour-a-day supply of “fresh drinking water” for quite some time now?
The PRO of GWI in his statement to the newspaper published on July 4 seemed to suggest that a new storage tank with a capacity for holding some 500 cubic meters of water would help to improve the service provided to Barticians.
May I ask how does the GWI plan to increase the flow of water that reaches Bartica households. Besides the ridiculousness of only receiving water twice a day for about 3 hours each time, this water comes at a rate at which it cannot reach sufficient height to be distributed around the house for use and of course storage, to be utilized during the other 18 hours of the day when one may have other things to do besides use water, because it will soon cut off. So of course if you cannot afford to buy storage tanks and a water pump and also afford to consume extra electricity to use your pump, you have to be awake and alert at around 9 pm to midnight and at 6 in the morning to do all your chores for the day which involve the use of water.
Unfortunately those who can afford a water pump and many storage tanks, and of course extra electricity consumption must be able to afford a generator because GPL’s electricity service is also woefully unreliable.
Without prior notice they cut off the electricity from sections of the community and then claim that they do not have the capacity to service the entire community at once. Editor, building housing schemes and encouraging population growth in communities is one thing, but being able to provide these communities with basic utilities such as “potable water” and reliable electricity is another.
Yours faithfully,
Miranda John
