On Tuesday the National Assembly was told that the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) is bankrupt even as the infrastructure for the delivery of potable water crumbles in several communities.
“Pipelines throughout the country are porous due to a lack of maintenance. The system has been left to decay. That is the legacy of [Richard] Van West-Charles,” Minister Susan Rodrigues told the House.
Rodrigues who is the Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water further stressed that the number of staff within the utility company had more than doubled over the last five years from 600 in 2015 to 1300 in 2020. This staffing increase did not, she lamented, lead to improved services for Guyanese.
In fact the Minister claimed that one Region 5 community, Champagne, which she visited had suffered because of a water leak for over a year.
The leak which had developed into a massive hole was according to the Minister fixed in a day.
She went on to lament that even though the authorities at GWI have consistently complained about the impact of non-revenue water on the utility’s finances there have been no efforts to order meters to remedy the situation.
In fact there is not one meter within the entire utility which can be installed.
Her government, she explained, will focus on reducing the instances of non-revenue water and increasing meter coverage.
To this end $56.5 million has been allocated for the purchase of 2500 smart meters.
Rodrigues stated that the utility has been hard hit by COVID-19 which has seen a 14.9% decrease in revenue collection and increase in expenditure to meet sanitizing needs.
For the second quarter of 2020 a total of $1.1 billion was collected compared to $1.3 billion in the first quarter as some 90,000 customers have not paid their bill. On the other hand $2.8 billion was expended to maintain supply.
Despite this challenge, the Irfaan Ali administration has plans to expand GWI’s services by focusing on the unserved areas in fulfillment of sustainable development goal number six, the Minister explained.
Speaking about the Housing Sector, Rodrigues described the policy of the last administration as lazy and haphazard.
She accused the APNU+AFC coalition of focusing on allocating lots rather than providing housing and shelter, a direct contradiction of their promise to provide communities with roads, drains, lighting and social services.
Lots, she claimed, we’re allocated on lands not owned by the Central Housing and Planning Authority.
The Minister accused the coalition of engaging in mass distribution of house lots as a political gimmick noting that even though 1,987 allocations were made only 251 titles were processed.
Rodrigues presented the Experiment Housing Scheme in Region 5 as a symbol of the APNU+AFC housing programme.
Government had built 19 houses in the community but despite repeatedly advertising these houses all 19 remain unoccupied several years later.
Having spent $140 million to construct the houses the CH&PA has so far incurred an additional $23 million to secure the structures from vandals.
Today, according to the Minster, many of the houses are dilapidated and infested with termites and therefore uninhabitable.
