Latest update March 21st, 2025 5:44 AM
High water bills, yet no water for eight years
For eight years the residents of Block 12 Non Pareil, East Coast Demerara, have been receiving some exorbitant water bills from the Guyana Water Incorporated and to date they cannot obtain a reliable supply of water.
This is despite the enormous amount of money spent by the government to lay pipelines to the individual homes.
Some residents have had to resort to using water pumps which they illegally attach to their pipelines in order to get an adequate supply of water.
This newspaper visited the area last Sunday to report on a fire and was inundated with appeals from residents to highlight their plight.
One of the useless hydrants in the Block 12 Non Pareil area.
“The government spent millions of dollars to do hydrants and you can’t even get water fuh cook,” Rahamat Ali, a prominent resident of the area told this newspaper.
He said that he has been living in the area for the past 13 years and he has not yet been able to get water even into his yard without the aid of a water pump.
“If you ain’t gat a water pump, you dead in here. And if you owe GUYWA one year water rate, they come and cut you off,” the angry resident added.
Apart from using water pumps, this newspaper observed that some residents have been forced to dig holes and use bowls to catch the trickle of water coming through their taps.
Ali said that he has become so fed up with the situation that he has resorted to using several water tanks to alleviate his situation.
But others who are not so fortunate have to bear the brunt of the hardship.
Recently, the Guyana Water Incorporated had appealed to residents to desist from breaking water mains to access water.
However, the appeal will definitely fall on deaf ears if an adequate supply of potable water is not provided.
And with water not flowing through the taps in the community, there is less hope for water flowing through several hydrants set up in the community in the case of fire.
According to the residents, the hydrants were installed about two years after the water mains were completed.
Another resident, Devi Adam, complained that despite their hardship, officials from the water company would confiscate their pumps if they were caught attaching them to water mains.
“When you put the pump on your pipe and you ain’t get water for weeks and GUYWA come and catch you, they take the pump with everything and carry it away. Without the pump you cannot get water. We might gat fuh pull it with our mouth,” the woman said.
This newspaper made stringent attempts to contact officials of the water company but none of the calls were returned.
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