Region 3 residents to benefit from improved water – GWI

Many calls have been made to the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) by residents of Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) who were for a considerable period of time forced to use water that was of poor quality.

However, on Friday, their calls were heard when the water company announced that it would be installing a total of eight mobile generators with an electrical ring system at three well sites, which would see the residents benefiting from an improved water supply.

According to the Regional Divisional Manager, Martin Garrick, two of those generators are already prepared and are ready to be installed.

Garrick highlighted that the quality of water was something that had been of interest to the water company and needed to be improved urgently.

“The quality of the power is always questionable. What we did is oversize our units so that they can run at a lower voltage or the imbalance voltage that would come from the power company, they would not disrupt the service to the customers,” Garrick said.

For 2016 and this year thus far, residents of the Region have, on a number of occasions, reached out to this news entity and other news entities to voice their concerns.

One of the woes highlighted was that the water was of very poor quality, as indicated by the strange colour. On many occasions, the residents were also left without any running water as the area suffered from frequent low voltages.

Garrick explained that the reason for the lack of water was low power at the stations which he said was “quite alarming” and contributed to numerous complaints of the residents.

He said that the water company had to resize the units to address the imbalance and larger voltage tolerance from the power company. “So when you are supposed to get 415 volts, you getting 360; so we have resized our units and they are working at 380 volts, now you have continuous current so we have no break in service.”

Residents of the Parfaite Harmonie area will soon benefit from 24-hour access once GPL supply is sufficient.

The other areas that are soon to benefit is Meten-Meer-Zorg, Uitvulgt and Hubu (Parika) – all will benefit from a restructuring of their water system.

The GWI will be embarking on four major projects in Region Three this year.  Some 20,000 residents are expected to benefit from the construction of the three new wells at Vergenoegen, Westminster and Pouderoyen.