Dear Editor,
The community of Bartica has been without a water supply since last Monday. Guyana Water Incorporated’s Bartica Branch said that this was due to technical difficulties being experienced at its water treatment plant located at Seventh Avenue, and that they were working “round the clock” to rectify the problem.
It has now become a daily routine for residents to source water directly from the nearby Essequibo and Mazaruni rivers, and it is not an unusual sight to encounter Bartica residents armed with buckets and whatever containers are available to them walking, cycling or driving to the rivers to fill these, or to bathe or even do their laundry there.
The tolerance of residents is beginning to become exhausted, especially when in this day and age they have to walk in public view with dirty laundry to the rivers. They have to do this in the current hot, dry and dusty weather conditions.
There are also fears of a health crisis occurring as a consequence of the use of untreated water not just in homes, but also at the eating-locations in and around Bartica. Added to this is the issue of the turbidity level of the water in the rivers because of increased gold mining upriver.
Bartica is crying out for urgent help.
Yours faithfully,
Edward A Persaud
