GWI to terminate defaulters’ water service

In an effort to recover monies from defaulting consumers, the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) will be moving to terminate the services of these persons.
This was revealed by Managing Director of GWI, Dr Richard Van West-Charles on Friday, who noted that the services of persons who owe three years or more of outstanding payments to the company, will be terminated at the end of 2018.
“We want to remind customers that as we focus on GWI’s debt and so forth, don’t allow your debt to go into 2019 because if you’ve owed from 2015 and your debt in 2015 is not paid by the end of 2018, around October of 2018, those services will no longer be available to you,” he stated.
Van West-Charles noted that this decision comes in light of the fact that the company remains unauthorised to collect any payments from its customers who owe in excess of three plus years.
“We’re not committing any longer, customers to carry debt for years upon years because this is stature bar and we cannot collect debt that is older than three years. So, going forward, GWI will be very proactive,” the Managing Director explained.
“If you owed us 2015 and beyond going back and you haven’t paid it off, look out for us by October. The services will be removed. We cannot be carrying over debt because many customers come and present their debts and we have to find ways and means of dealing with that but we want to be within the law. So we have a new approach where we’re encouraging and working with customers,” he added.
It was reported that some communities owe large sums of monies to the company. In one instance the company had announced that the Buxton area owes some $116 million in debt. Furthermore, $89 million of that money belonged to unmetered individuals. However, when employees of the company attempted to disconnect residents in that community, the company’s vehicle was torched. This caused the GWI crew to flee for their lives.
Additionally, attempts are being made to rectify the archaic system by replacing certain sections of the networks which cannot withstand the pressure. These results in leaks and also one of the main causes of water wastage in Guyana.
Currently, the company is working to provide potable water to residents of remote areas in Guyana.