The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) is implementing a plan which will see 90 percent of coastal residents benefitting from improved water quality and supply within the next five years. This was disclosed by Vice President and former Head of State, Bharrat Jagdeo, during a press conference earlier today.
“We’re preparing for the budget now and I had meetings with the GWI. They’ve come up with a plan for US$118M to take treated water along the coast…Up to 90 percent of our people would be supplied with treated water over the next five years. It will take $118M to do that. Eleven treatment plants and 13 in-line improvement facilities as well as transmission mains to improve the water sector on the coast,” he said.
Jagdeo said that a similar strategy is in place for hinterland residents.
The former president said that he has before him, the level of water service in all the communities countrywide, maps of each area where the treatment plants will be constructed. He said that the government is now working on filling the gaps on financing, with US$25M from the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) already secured.
Jagdeo assured that the government has already moved away from strategizing to putting systems in place to kickstart the project. “So, we’re not just working at the broad strategic level [but] we’re already working at the detailed planning process,” he added.
