The Guyana Water Incorporated believes it is on track to have the situation with the quality of water in Georgetown and other communities return to some level of normalcy by this weekend.

The company has blamed a build-up of sludge in the canal at its Shelter Belt operations for the issue, which has been plaguing customers over the past few days. The sludge build-up is believed to have been caused by clearing works that were done at the East Demerara Water Conservancy.

At a press conference this morning, GWI Chief Executive Officer, Shaik Baksh, said the water qualify has been improving, with ongoing corrective works taking place.

“It is only Central Georgetown that is affected now. We have other treatment plants like in Sophia that is functioning very good, and as a matter of fact, we are upgrading the Sophia operation to get more coverage to more customers in the east of Georgetown and we are drilling a well there…Central Ruimveldt has not been affected, this is an iron removal plant, and here again we are drilling a well as I speak, we have a well and we are upgrading that plant also to extend its coverage. So we have no problems in those areas with treatment plants at this time”, Mr. Baksh said.

Mr. Baksh said GWI is very concerned with what took place that led to the flow of discoloured water with heavy sediments through the taps. He said the situation was beyond the control of GWI.

He said “it was one of those situations that occur once in a lifetime in such a large scale. You would have the individual situations in certain areas, or individual customers for a number of reasons, including the black tanks not being cleaned, we accept that, from time to time we have those problems around the city. But the totality of Central Georgetown to be affected, I call it a phenomena that was never experienced and it was beyond our control at that point in time”, he noted.

Baksh said in most areas, the water quality has improved. He offered thanks to his team that worked around the clock to get the situation back to a level of normalcy. Works are still ongoing and should be completed by this weekend.

Outside of Central Georgetown, Mr. Baksh said the quality of water and the high iron content in water being supplied to a number of other communities along the coast, is also concerning to GWI.

“The solution to those problems on the coastal belt is to build treatment plants. Huge investments are being made, the Government of Guyana and GWI as the executing agency, to correct the situation, and already we have seven large treatment plants that we built in Regions 2, 3, 4, East Bank and East Coast and Region 5 and Region 6…seven, and we will commence building five more before the end of this year”, Mr. Baksh told reporters.

The GWI CEO said there are a number of upgrades being planned at various treatment plants across the country that should result in improved water quality and supply. The company has apologized for the quality of water experienced in parts of Georgetown over the past few days.

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