Fire truck supplies affected WCD residents with water

Water woes

– East Coast villages without water for days

As Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) continues to address the water woes, hundreds of residents on the West Coast and East Coast of Demerara are without potable water for close to two weeks.

Residents of Plaisance, Goedverwagting, Ogle, Better Hope and Atlantic Gardens on the ECD have contacted Guyana Times out of frustration complaining about the water woes.
Most of them have stated that they have been out of water for the past week but GWI has not issued any statement with regards the situation. As such, they are hoping the water company corrects the present inconvenience at the shortest possible time.
On the other hand, as the situation gets worse on the WCD, the fire tenders attached to the Guyana Fire Service intervened on Friday morning to bring some relief to resident in De Kenderen and Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara (WCD).
The trucks would have provided residents with a few containers of water to last them a few hours so that the children and those working family members can go about their business.
Although grateful, the residents were upset at the poor condition of the water.
“Me ain’t putting that on my skin, the water brown, it looks like trench water, I ain’t sure where they get that from” one resident complained.
Another stated “I can’t use that to bathe or to wash my baby clothes because I don’t know what germs in it, it red red” the young woman complained in dismay.
Some residents told Guyana Times that at midnight, water would come through the taps but only for a short period.
“I does put the hose in the drum and leave the pipe on so when it come on a little at nights, I does get water but just a little but at least I could use it to shower” the De Kenderen resident stated.
However, some residents have not gotten any water at all for several days now.
“We even try to pump the water and nothing. We don’t have any water at all to do anything, not to bathe, to wash, to clean, nothing at all” the resident said.
The water woes in the areas began with consistently low water pressure, creating a situation of acute discomfort and inconvenience to residents.
“The water pressure has been so low that I had to loose down my pipe from the stand to get [it] to a lower height, and then I use small containers to literally place on the ground to get a little water. That’s how desperate I am…
“Doing that takes me a good 30 minutes to get a small bucket of water… It is very frustrating, and today (Sunday) no water at all [has flowed]. I don’t know how much more of this I can take. This is the weekend, when I need to get all of my chores done before the new week. Now all of my dirty clothes pile up, my house is a mess…I don’t have water to do anything,” one De Kenderen resident had complained.
Another De Kenderen resident had recently complained of having to purchase water in order to complete chores.
“I don’t have any water tanks or water barrels or anything at the moment, so I have no other means of getting water other than from the pipes. And since they aren’t working, I literally have to purchase bottled water to shower and do dishes and so on, and that is not cheap at all! It’s a struggle,” that resident complained.
However, the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), when contacted, had advised affected residents that the matter is being investigated, but results of this investigation are yet to be made known.
The water company had further revealed that no issue had been detected at the pump station supplying the affected areas. Officials reportedly believe there might have been a breakage in the water distribution network. It was, however, later reported that the issue is as a result of low power being supplied by the Guyana Power and Light Inc (GPL).
As such, a team from GWI is presently working to have water pushed to the area.