Over 20 residents of Budhan Housing Scheme in New Amsterdam, Berbice have already signed contracts with the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) for the supply of potable water to the community, which has been in existence for over ten years.
A press release from GWI said last week that Chief Executive Dr Richard Van West-Charles had pledged to “personally make every effort to ensure that the residents of Budhan Housing Scheme begin receiving water by Christmas,” if they all signed contracts by the end of November.
The pledge was made at a community meeting held on November 5 and as at yesterday more than 20 residents had gone to the GWI Office at Chesney, New Amsterdam and signed up.
According to the release, Van West-Charles, in recognition that of GWI’s mandate to ensure that “every citizen of the country has access to safe water” and the financial strain many residents were under, proposed that they pay for their water service connections over an eight-month period. “We understand the financial strain of the families living in the scheme so we will allow a long period for residents to pay for their service in small, affordable amounts,” he said.
The Budhan Housing Scheme is a private housing development, hence residents are being charged for the service connections, which will be metered, GWI said.
Regional Chairman of Region Six David Armogan, who was also at the community meeting, expressed his gratitude to the water utility company on the initiative as previous attempts to provide service to the scheme over the past years proved unsuccessful.
