President Ali promises treated water for more than 90% of families by 2030

The opposition PNC-led APNU leader, Aubrey Norton, claimed that there is a potable water crisis in Guyana. The PNC should be the last to speak on water. Prior to 1992, access to potable water was a national disgrace. Who could forget the images of people with buckets of water on their heads walking along the streets and highways? Remember people pulling tanks along the road after trekking long distances to get water?
For people in the hinterland, the creeks were the only source of water. When the PNC-led APNU took over the Government again in 2015, over 85 per cent of the population had access to potable water because of the achievements of the PPP-led Governments from 1992.
Every family in Guyana should have access to potable water. It is a fundamental right. While no one in his or her right mind can say that each and every family in our country has access to potable water, we can be proud that about 98 per cent of the population has easy access to potable water today. Guyana is working towards 100 per cent access to potable water by 2030. Moreover, President Irfaan Ali has publicly stated that every family living on the coast and in many areas of the hinterland will have access to treated water.
Ministers of Trade and other Government officials gathered to discuss trade and development over four days, from October 20 to 23, in Geneva. Guyana was represented at the meeting by the Guyana Mission in Geneva. One clear message that resonated throughout the conference is that the world is seriously off-track in achieving the 169 development targets of the Sustainable Development Goals.
Consider this dismal picture: the world is on track for only 18 per cent of the 169 targets that are part of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. With a gap of more than $US4 trillion in SDG financing and burdened with a debt servicing of $US1.4 trillion in an environment of decreasing development aid (development aid fell by 7.1 per cent in 2024), we can safely predict that most of the global targets will not be achieved by most countries by 2030.
Most countries are struggling to meet the 11 targets for Goal 6 – water and sanitation. One of the Goal 6 targets is access to safely managed drinking water for the population. While many countries are off-track in meeting this target under Goal 6, there is this “good news”: between 2015 and 2024, humanity recorded one of the fastest expansions of a basic welfare need in human history, with more than 961 million people around the world gaining safe drinking water.
It is true that 26 per cent of global citizens, totalling 2.1 billion people, still lack access to safe drinking water. But if in nine years, between 2015 and 2024, global Governments were able to gain access to safe drinking water for 961 million people around the world, then, with a little bit more effort, the world can ensure that 100 per cent of global citizens have access to safe drinking water.
This Goal 6 target (access to safe drinking water) is within reach by 2030. While reaching the goal for target 6.1 is a national responsibility, multilateral support is still needed. For those who wonder whether multilateralism is still relevant, this is one of the reasons why multilateralism must prevail. Some national Governments can presently meet the needs through their own investments, but there are other national Governments that will need help.
Even as the SDGs came into sharp focus at UNCTAD 16 in Geneva, controversy erupted in Guyana between the Ministry responsible for water, the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), and the PNC leader, Aubrey Norton, who declared that there is a “water crisis” in Guyana. The GWI responded with its own insistence that there is no “water crisis”.
In fact, Guyana has made rapid progress since 2015. Guyana is one of the countries that have invested heavily, with more than $65 billion in the last five years to improve access to safe water. Presently, more than 96 per cent of the population has access to safe potable water. The GWI insists that this will reach 98 per cent by the end of 2025. At this pace, it means that Guyana should easily meet the 100 per cent access target by 2030.
The question of rural access leads to the vexing issue of people with access to safe drinking water in the hinterland. Guyana has made impressive gains in relation to hinterland access to drinking water, moving from 46 per cent in 2020 to 91 per cent in 2025. This impressive gain of doubling access in hinterland communities in the last five years occurred because the Government constructed 153 wells between 2020 and 2025, compared with only 21 wells in the previous five years.
But even as Guyana has made impressive progress in access to safe drinking water, it has also embarked on a pathway from just potable water to treated water. In 2020, 52 per cent of Guyanese had access to treated water. That has now expanded to 75 per cent, with a significant jump to 90 per cent by the end of 2026 and to 96 per cent by 2028. In the last five years, seven new treatment plants have become operational in Caledonia, Cummings Lodge, Onderneeming, Parika, La Parfaite Harmonie, Wales, and Bachelors Adventure. By the end of 2026, five additional treatment plants will become operational in Maria’s Delight, Wakenaam, Leguan, Bath, and Adventure. New treatment plants are also planned for Bartica, Hope, and Diamond.
Access to safe drinking water is a human right, and Guyana is investing to ensure that every Guyanese benefits from this fundamental human right. The Government of Guyana must be commended for its investment to make potable and treated water accessible to all Guyanese. While significant gains have been made and Guyana is on track to be one of the countries that has met our obligations under SDG 6.1, we must ensure consistency and reliability in the supply.