Residents of Hand en Veldt, Mahaica, Region 5, have been promised access to potable water by Christmas this year, after 10 years of being without such.
This promise was made as Managing Director of Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) Dr. Richard Van West-Charles and other technical staff visited the community on Monday, a release from the utility said yesterday.
The residents of the community had written a letter which appeared in the November 20 edition of Stabroek News complaining of their lack of access to potable water even after making several pleas to the previous administration.
GWI said that under the current administration, the residents recently reached out to GWI’s regional office where they received support and works commenced shortly thereafter to ensure that the residents receive potable water.
There were, however, some technical challenges along the way, the release said, which delayed the installation of the service connections to customers. The GWI Managing Director told the residents that he asked that the company’s technical staff to look as the situation, and despite the challenges, GWI will seek every means possible to remedy the situation by Christmas.
Van West-Charles encouraged the residents to firstly register with the regional office as
customers, following which they will pay a minimal service connection fee.
He also related to residents that the company will regularly test the water they will receive and the results will be accessible to all.
GWI Executive Director of Operations, Dwayne Shako, told the residents that the company will begin the installation of service connections to customers during this week.
GWI said that residents also took the opportunity to raise other issues, including leakages in the vicinity of the community and the build-up of rust in the pipe at the end of the network.
GWI will install a flush-out mechanism to address the latter issue, the release said.
In the letter to Stabroek News, a resident had said that they had been pleading for over a decade for water.
“We have several residents here and many more who want to join in building their homes but have not done so due to not having access to potable water. We are forced to pay $700 per 250-gallon water container to wash, cook, clean and drink. A typical household residence comprises of 4 to 10 persons who range in age. Many of us are peasant farmers with little children who have to go to school and even pensioners and have to be using water from the canal for personal and hygienic needs. Should this still be happening in the year 2017”, the resident asked.
