The public face of Guyana Water Inc.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Guyana Water Inc Karan Singh strongly believes that the problems associated with the payment of water rates are, for want of a better word “cultural.” In other words, as he puts it, “people have taken the land of many waters saying” to mean that “they should receive clean water in their homes whenever they turn their taps on.”
Evidence of high costs associated with the provision of electricity and telephone services are, for the most part, far more visible to consumers than in the case of water. The water treatment and purification infrastructure run by GWI is less visible to consumers and not too many people probably know that GWI’s electricity costs are so high that the government meets 80 per cent of those costs.
The GWI’s woes are put into even sharper perspective when one considers that for all the huge sums that are spent on chemicals, treatment plants, engineers, pipelines and electricity, more than 60 per cent of the water delivered by the company literally goes down the drain without being put to any real use or when millions of gallons of treated water is used to water flower and vegetable gardens or simply to wash cars.
The habits that have spawned a 60 per cent level of what the GWI describes as “non revenue water” and the use of water for gardening and car wash purposes are habits that are deeply ingrained in the society and it would probably take more than a public information/public relations initiative being undertaken by the GWI to remedy the problem. Apart from the “pressure” which Mr Singh says the GWI has been putting on delinquent customers to :pay up,” the water utility must also create an image that allows the public to become more intimate with its operations and with the costs associated with providing the nation with potable water.
Part of the GWI’s problem is that it has never really invested meaningfully in reaching out to its consumers and, over the years, its Public Relations Department has not really been proactive in “selling” the company. It would probably make a great deal of sense, for example, to cause the public to be continually reminded of what it costs the GWI to bring pure water to consumers – to lay pipelines, install pumps, purchase chemicals and operate water treatment plants.
Perhaps, more importantly, it may be useful to point out to the water-consuming public that while the GWI seeks to be a profit-making entity that responds to every conceivable consumer need, there is really no chance that this can become a reality since, given the present level of water rate collection, the GWI cannot even afford to pay its own electricity bills.