Major improvements for Bartica as Govt addresses water woes

– Minister Croal promises 24-hour water access by mid-year

The Housing and Water Ministry is looking to ‘straighten’ out the Guyana Water Inc (GWI) Division at Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and according to the Subject Minister Collin Croal, there will be 24-hour water supply later this year.
Croal made these remarks on Friday at the ‘Dream Realised’ 2025 Housing Drive held at the Bartica Community Centre Ground.
Presently, Bartica and surrounding communities up to Five Miles are being served under the Bartica Water Treatment Plant, which has different schedules for water distribution.
According to Minister Croal, Government has been investing heavily across the country to ensure that citizens not only have access to water but to potable water. In fact, more than $1.2 billion have been injected to enhance water delivery in Region Seven.

The treatment plant is located in central Bartica and a booster system was installed at Four Miles to expand the water distribution, but this did not work out due to the height that the water had to travel. Consequently, Government has injected another $468 million to construct a second water treatment plant at Five Miles, and those works are ongoing.
When this facility is completed, the Minister said water access will be significantly enhanced and the current scheduled supply will be a thing of the past.
“The [new] treatment plant there will service Four to Seven Miles, and then when that comes on stream by the middle of this year or before, we will remove the distribution that is coming from the central location here. That will therefore see, Central Bartica up to Three Miles getting 24-hour water supply from this [existing] system, and from Four Miles going to Seven Miles, will get 24-hour water from the [new] treatment plant,” Croal stated.

Major changes
This announcement comes on the heels of complaints by residents over the past few weeks about the water service delivery in the area. According to the Minister, whenever he forwards these complains to the GWI team on the ground, they respond with good reports.
“But then when I look at social media, I see a different picture. So, I sent the CEO [of GWI, Shaik Baksh] and the Head of Operations here in Bartica to spend sometime and to go to every area as well as to access what is happening …As of next week, we’ll be making some major changes here in Bartica because the performance and things [are] not regular,” Croal said.
To this end, the Housing and Water Minister urged residents to be patient as they work to address the issues affecting them, putting in place better systems to serve them.
“And so, I ask for your patience, your indulgence, because while we can’t eliminate the scheduling until we’re finished with the second treatment plant, the water that is coming through the tap in the Central Bartica area – there is no excuse for the quality of the water coming through there because it is coming through the treatment plant right here. So, you should not be seeing any rusty water coming through the tap from the distribution at the central location.”
“That is why I said to you things are not regular and we’re addressing it. By one week, we’ll straighten Region Seven – the Bartica area, so I ask for your patience,” Minister Croal stressed.
In a March 3 Facebook post, a Bartica resident, Gena Chappell, posted a video of ‘rusty’ water coming through the tap. According to the woman, “…imagine I came home from work to no running water… now after 10pm and this wha yall gah running thru we pipes… fix this… plus it stink.”
This same resident had also complained on social media about the irregular supply of water mid-last month.
Days later, GWI had stated that customers in Central Bartica were affected after the Bartica Water Treatment Plant experienced some disruptions due to technical issues caused by power outage in the area.
Meanwhile, the construction of the Five Miles Water Treatment Plant is expected to be completed by August. However, during a visit back in January, Minister Croal was told that the contractor is working to deliver ahead of schedule.
The facility is designed to serve both the existing Five Miles Housing Scheme and its new extension. The extension has some 119 lots and the Ministry’s first 40 turn-key three-bedroom houses are currently under construction there.