GWI records $200M increase in revenue

The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) has announced that it has seen a significant increase in revenues for 2018 when compared to the past year.
This information was divulged by the Executive Director of Commercial Services at GWI, Marlon Daniels, during a press conference on Friday. He indicated that when compared to the same time last year, there has been an increase in revenue collected.
In June of this year, $2 billion was collected, in comparison to $1.8 billion last year. “Concerning only this year, at the end of June we were at $2 billion, as opposed to the corresponding period for last year, in which it was at $1.8 billion; so there has been a significant increase,” Daniel said.
Meanwhile, Managing Director of the utility company, Dr Richard Van West Charles, noted the credit goes to better data analysis after the country was divided into zones, enabling GWI to effectively find out when, and if, customers are paying their bills.
“We are now moving aggressively, disaggregating the data sets to the point that we are now able to discern customers in each of the zones which we’ve divided up the country into; which of the customers are paying in the first 31 days; which of the customers are paying between 31 and 60 days, and which of the customers are paying later than 90 days,” he related.
It was related that the data collected will be used to provide assistance and examine areas where attention is needed. Since the new rates have also being approved by the Public Utilities Commission (PUC), the utility company is aiming to ensure that all bills are paid for water consumption across the country.
“What we intend to do with that data is that we have to ensure that, as we go forward with the new tariffs which have been approved by the PUC, ensure that people actually pay the fixed charge to address some of the distribution networks which require attention,” Dr Van West Charles stated.
He noted that the company would introduce a few new devices to plug access, “once we do not receive payments for the water on time”.
Meanwhile, efforts have been doubled to collect outstanding debt from 2015 to present. In-house crews have been focusing on collections from 2015, while contractors are working to recoup current debt.
This is being done through disconnection exercises. To date, some 4,134 disconnections were done, while 294 new service connections were installed.
Since 2016, it was correlated, the utilities company has seen increases in its collection of revenue. At the press conference, it was also related that bill delivery efficiency for the first half of 2018 currently stands at 98 percent. Meter-reading efficiency has also increased from 93 percent to 95 percent.
This year, two hundred and thirty-eight defective water meters were replaced, which is expected to yield significant revenue, since the unmetered accounts consume 20 cubic metres of water while they are billed a flat tariff of only 10 cubic metres per month.