It has been a little over one year since Dr. Richard Van-West Charles assumed the office of Managing Director at the Guyana Water Inc. (GWI) and earlier today at a press conference, Van-West Charles boasted of significant improvements in the areas of Management and organisation, water supply and water quality, water distribution, sanitation, finance, customer service and debt recovery.

The CEO said that there were a number of issues which had to be addressed in those areas.

He noted that when he began last year, he started to look at issues in those areas as there were no established strategic planning and monitoring at the management level, this led him to establish a unit that to address management issues along with the staff required to run it.

In terms of water distribution and supply, he pointed out that GWI’s boundaries of operation have been extended and the remit is “very clear” as highway communities for example can now access water.

Another issue he noted was that there were dual managers in each region prior to his arrival and those regions now have one manager who makes “better sense and reduces any conflict”.

He pointed to significant changes in staffing at the Shelter Belt as they (GWI) push to improve water quality in the capital city, in the Shelter Belt, a lab was established and runs on a 24/7 basis while samples are taken at an hourly basis to ensure the consistency of water quality being distributed to citizens

Van-West Charles further noted the significant shortage of engineers at GWI one year ago, this has since been rectified and although there is still some amount of shortage, plants country-wide now have proper supervision.s

“The problem of leaks require more staff, more engineers to overlook the system.”

According to Dr. Van-West Charles when he came into office, they had no system of appraising staff performance but they are planning to put one in place. In addition to that system there has been training of staff, he revealed that currently GWI’s Dutch colleagues are conducting several training sessions with staff.

Another area of improvement that was noted by the CEO was the collaboration with the University of Guyana to strengthen the engineering courses that are relevant to GWI as the water company often attracts a lot of newly graduated engineers from the University.

WATER SUPPLY AND QUALITY

According to Van-West Charles a number of regions didn’t have any water supply, this is now changing,  “by the end of this week for example, D and E Fields in Sophia will be having water for the first time, as a result of good work by staff.”

“Water pressure and Supply in Sophia will further be boosted by the refurbishment of wells at Turkeyne and Cummings Lodge.”

“The residents of Sophia have suffered significantly in regards to water, we have advised residents not to use water as yet, as supply lines have to be disinfected which is now in the final stages.”

Moving on to the hinterland areas, the CE announced that in Karau up the  Essequibo River, in which residents have had bouts of waterborne diseases, a Well has been drilled and GWI is now in the process of installing tanks, residents are expected to access water very shortly.

It was disclosed that GWI is working directly with the regional administration in that area and has asked them to indicate which communities don’t have access to water so that plans can be made to rectify that.

Van-West Charles declared that provision of quality water is top priority for GWI which has led to them installing more mini-labs at Water Treatment Plants countrywide.

The distribution system- LBI overhead tank is now working and has increased water pressure, working collaboratively with communities so as to identify leaks so they can correct them, leaks are a major issue in GY

Plans are apace to drill new wells for densely populated areas such as Diamond which the CE noted needs at least three wells, other areas identified for more wells are Sophia, Sparendaam and Rosehall.

As they move to increase infrastructure he noted that there is an increase in cost for service as the methodology is costly.  

According to Van-West Charles, they are currently working with a Dutch team to improve new methodologies of drilling which is expected to reduce the costs.

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