On July 1, the Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan visited the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) to meet with officials and advised “GWI is now within the purview of the new Ministry as a vital arm for the delivery of safe water service country-wide.”
According to a Ministry of Communi-ties press release, Bulkan told GWI’s Management team “while the structure of the Ministry may be new to GWI employees, it is essentially a continuation of the existing policies that govern the efficient delivery of services to the nation.”
On his expectations for GWI, Bulkan said, “there is an urgent need for the re-establishment of the National Water Council to effectively make decisions on the issues related to the long-term management of local water resources.”
Effectively, the Minister explained, the ministry was created with “the belief that more empowerment is needed among the local democratic bodies, communities and agencies providing essential services to the residents.” Given that, he said it is the Ministry’s thrust to “provide essential support for local government bodies in an effort to encourage more decision making and execution of community development initiatives at this level.”
In addition, the Minister called for the creation of a “National Strategy on the Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM),” as he deemed it “essential to the overall strategy of sustainable administration of Guyana’s water resources.”
As it related to the management of GWI, Bulkan expressed “the importance of the utility becoming financially viable,” and encouraged the continuation of the aggressive campaign for revenue from the water service charges. There is also a need for a “strategy to deal with non-revenue water,” he said, and the requirement for the utility “to reduce the amount of water that is unaccounted for within the system and the subsequent loss of revenue.”
There would be “no reinvention of operating standards,” Bulkan told the officials, “but instead a focus on the areas for improvement,” and it is the Management that has the task of “ensuring that all services provided to customers are of the highest quality and that all GWI employees perform their duties with the utmost integrity.”
