The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) severed water supply to several of the city’s entities yesterday over unpaid arrears but later said it had restored it after a letter was received from the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) requesting a meeting to discuss the issue.
In a press release yesterday, the M&CC said the water company “carried out its threat and disconnected the water supply from vital areas of the Georgetown Mayor and City Council”.
It said the supply at the abattoir, day care centres, maternal and child welfare operations, municipal markets and the Merriman Mall were disconnected. “This brutal action has put at risk the health and welfare of children and adults of Georgetown as the lack of water will create a serious health hazard,” the M&CC said.
However, in a statement issued shortly after this newspaper contacted the utility, GWI said that as a result of the M&CC not paying part of its arrears within a given deadline, water supply was disconnected from several of the municipality’s entities yesterday. It stated that the council subsequently requested a deferral and suggested a meeting for next Monday. “Unfortunately, several of the municipality’s entities had already been disconnected. Thus, GWI has ceased all disconnections and decided to reconnect those entities that were disconnected,” the statement said.
The release said GWI has agreed to meet the M&CC once more, next Monday, “to decide on a timely profitable agreement.”
The M&CC statement had said that the council was still in discussion with GWI to find a way forward “to resolve the many complex issues of our relationship”.
The council said that of interest is that GWI “has suddenly abandoned the Hi A billing system” and now makes claims which are highly inflated. The statement said the council received a bill of $1.7M for water supply to the 1763 monument but “this facility has always been the responsibility of the Office of the President and never was the obligation of the Mayor and City Council”. It alleged that GWI has denied responsibility to pay taxes for the North Ruimveldt and the Kingston Well facilities and asserted that it appears that “for reasons, which may or not be obscure, the Mayor and City Council has been targeted for special treatment”.
The GWI statement said that the $50M it asked the council to pay by last Wednesday was only part of the $141M that the municipality owed GWI since 2004.
When Stabroek News contacted City Hall, shortly after 4 pm yesterday, a representative said water supply had not been restored and referred this newspaper to Mayor Hamilton Green. Contacted, Green said the last report he had was that the entities were still without water and noted that they were closed after 4 pm, so it would not be readily known until today whether water was restored.
