The Guyana Water Incorporated is apologizing to customers across the city for the discoloured water coming through their taps, and the company has indicated that it is working around the clock to get the situation back to normal.

Chief Executive Officer at GWI, Shaik Baksh explained to News Source this evening that it appears that now that the rainy conditions have started after several months of dry weather, the canals at the GWI Shelter Belt operations have been overtaken by a build-up of sludge coming in from the conservancy.

He said massive clean up efforts are now underway.

“We have a western canal and an eastern canal which is far bigger. We have completed cleaning the western canal, which is smaller, and we are now cleaning the other. We have about 30 persons cleaning the eastern canal…the works are ongoing and this work is scheduled to be completed by Friday or Saturday. What may have happened is that the turbidity has gone up in the water and the sludge coming from the East Demerara Water Conservancy, coming down through the Lamaha Canal into shelter belt, apparently our thinking is that with the dry season, a lot of work was done in cleaning the conservancy, they had to do that, but now with the rains that came down, a lot of the silt and so on went into the Lamaha Canal from the conservancy and has overwhelmed our storage gears, so when you are pumping, its a lot of sludge and so on”, Mr. Baksh explained.

Mr. Baksh said he understands the frustration of citizens, but added that the company has workers carrying out duties late into the nights to rectify the problem.

“We are cleaning all of the canals and our reservoirs also will be cleaned to ensure that we pump out better water, and so we have sent out an advisory asking for patience and we are working many hours late at night to complete the works”, Baksh said.

Residents across the city and surrounding communities started to notice the discoloured water running through their taps over the past two days.

Tests have been carried out on the quality of the water, and while the water has been dubbed as “safe”, persons are still being advised to take precautions against its use for consumption purposes.

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