With poor quality water flowing through their taps, residents of Two Miles, Bartica are pleading with the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) to address the issue and bring some relief.
“The water isn’t coming through every day and when it comes, it is this very brown colour and if you bathe with it, your whole skin breaking out,” Annmarie Bobb told Stabroek News via phone yesterday.
“It is costing us a lot of money because I just came from the pharmacy because the children skin break out. I don’t have any other source of water and I can’t afford to buy water. We are pleading with GWI and the Ministry of Health to please look at this issue,” the woman added.
Another resident Kelvin (only name given), said that he and some other persons depend on rainwater but would still like GWI to address the issue since “you cannot predict when there will be a dry spell.”
“I not sure what happen to the water quality here and if it wasn’t for the lil rain, I don’t know wuh some a we would do. Not everybody could afford to buy water so some a we is drink the rainwater or boil the pipe water for the children. But tell me nah, how can we boil this muddy looking water?” he questioned.
GWI last month promised that the quality and reliability of the water supply in Bartica would be improved as it announced the construction of a well and remedial works on the water filtration system.
According to a Department of Public Information (DPI) report, GWI said that it has made strides toward upgrading its water infrastructure in Region Seven. As a result, Bartica, which uses surface water for its supply, will receive its first well this year, and the water filtration system will guarantee less contamination of the water supply and reduce the importation of chemicals used to treat the water.
Funded through GWI’s $154 million supplemental budget allocation, the initiatives are set to roll out soon.
“We just got the approval. With the new technology we have with drilling wells, I feel that we should be able in Bartica itself and Four Miles and Five Miles…to drill one or two wells which will give us more water security within the Bartica area,” Dr Richard Van West-Charles, the utility’s CEO was quoted as saying. He said that the project is the first of many slated for Bartica, which, he observed, is growing at a rapid pace.+
The DPI report said that Bartica is one of several areas being targeted by GWI for the provision of improved water access and quality. It was noted that GWI has embarked on digging new and deeper wells, building new water networks and providing first time access to clean potable water throughout Guyana, with special emphasis on hinterland communities.
While the residents said that they are grateful for the upgrades in the community, they are pleading for the urgent addressing of their immediate water needs. “It seems that it is the river water that is being used just like that, from the river to the taps and that can’t be right. I know me as a mother is asking for this situation to be look at right now because I can’t be running to the pharmacy all the time,” Bobb said.
