Residents of the Dazzel Housing Scheme, East Coast Demerara are bemoaning the fact that after several years there is still no running water to their pipes or homes and they are forced to depend on the rain water or the trucks that go around once a day to distribute water.
“But professionals are not at home during the day to get water from the trucks and we don’t even know how clean that water is,” one irate resident told this newspaper recently.
He said while he only moved into the scheme recently persons who have been there for over 15 years indicated that it has been 11 years since they have been without running water.
Contacted for a comment, Public Relations Officer of Guyana Water Inc (GWI) Timothy Austin told Stabroek News that plans are on stream to give the community water.
“We have plans to install a distribution system in the Dazzel area and they would get water from the Enmore well,” Austin said yesterday.
He said that GWI is doing site visits at present and laying the groundwork but he could not give a time frame as to when running water would be a reality.
“I wouldn’t want to give a time frame it is now in the preliminary stage. We have the funding and the community will receive water,” he reiterated.
According to residents initially there were stand pipes at each street corner on the main access road where they would get water but as time went water stopped coming through the pipes. Now while they have pipes these are just white elephants because no water is being given to the thirsty residents. The residents said they community is big and as such it would be worth the water company’s time to run pipes to each yard. They indicated that there are about 23 streets in the scheme with 50 houses each.
“We do catch rain water but what happens when there is no rain and we have to invest in more than one black tank,” another resident said.
Some of the residents cross over to neighbouring village Bare Root to get water but others are unable to do so because inaccessibility.
“People cannot even plant a kitchen garden properly because when it is not raining the trenches are dry and there is no water to give to the plants,” one resident commented.
