Dear Editor,
I feel constrained to write about Guyana Water Inc (GWI), and the Department of Culture due to many decades of association as a worker/pensioner of the GWI, and a similar lengthy association with Culture as a long standing management committee member of the Woodside Choir and the Guyana Musical Arts Festival Inc.
Under previous administrations the following changes have taken place, so I am interested to see where these organisations will be placed under this new administration.
Until 1994 (my dates subject to correction) the now defunct Georgetown Sewerage and Water Commissioners (GS&WC), was traditionally under the control of the Mayor and Councillors of the City of Georgetown (M&CC).
When the delinking came into being in 1994, the wind of change had been blowing long before that, as GS&WC was under the Ministry of Health for a period in the 1980s, while still being funded from the M&CC.
By 2002 (my dates again), the GS&WC was joined to the Guyana Water Authority, and became GWI.
There was the intention when the IDB funding became available in the 1990s that GS&WC should become self-financing and stand on its own, but with the proposals from Guywa’s management at the time, GS&WC and Guywa became one company by 2002, under the GWI Act.
The Ministry of Housing and Water became the responsible ministry, later becoming the Ministry of Tourism, Housing and Water.
I stand subject to correction, but I think that prior to the formation of Guywa in 1972, Pure Water Supply as it was then known, was a part of the Ministry of Works.
The Department of Culture was originally called the National History and Arts Council during the time of the first Carifesta (1972). Was it a creation of Carifesta or was it created for Carifesta or did it help create Carifesta?
Later its existence was formalised under the Ministry of Education as the Ministry of Education and Culture.
More recently it has become a part of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport.
Yours faithfully,
David H J Dewar
Editor’s note
It has been announced that water falls within Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan’s portfolio, while Culture comes under the Minister of Social Cohesion Amna Ally.
