Dear Editor,
I have been living in Agriculture Road now for the past eight years and residents here have been suffering a lot from a water shortage. We used to get water from NARI, but recently the pipeline from NARI was destroyed by a hymac while digging the trench. When myself and residents approached the director at NARI to reconnect the pipe he said we must get a letter from Minister of Water, Mr Ali. Last week myself and some residents went to see the Minister, and he then called the Director of NARI, who told him that NARI cannot give us water any longer because of low pressure. I then asked the Minister if we could have water from GWI (which we used to get before NARI supplied us), although there are some people who are tampering with the main lines in the area. He sent me with some residents to Shelter Belt to speak to Mr Chandisingh, who came to my place that same afternoon and instructed the GWI workers in the area to turn on the water. They turned on the water and fixed my line that was blocked and I started to get water. The water came every day thereafter, sometimes in the morning and late in the afternoon.
We are now back at square one where we cannot get water at regular intervals. After Mr Chandisingh called the GWI staff in my area and demanded an explanation the water came back. But after a few days we were back looking for water like a cat hunting a rat. Why is it that the many illegal connections ordered removed by Mr Chandisingh were reconnected the next day?
Where I live is an agriculture area; trenches are dried up and livestock are suffering. In this day and age of technology why are we still behind our neighbours Suriname, Trinidad and Barbados by lacking water and electricity?
It seems to me that the water pumps or GWI plants don’t have what it takes to send the water pressure a long distance. It’s amazing that residents living in Block 8 just near to the Green Tank water plant are not getting water. The pressure in the lines cannot come through a regular 2 foot high standpipe. If residents living just near the water tank a few houses away cannot get water then how can someone like me living two miles from the tank get water? Residents now have to buy water at a cost of up to $6000 per tank.
Yours faithfully,
Rev Gideon Cecil
Editor’s note
We are sending a copy of this letter to Mr Yuri Chandisingh, CEO of Guyana Water Inc for any comments he might wish to make.
