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Water quality issues flagged by PUC affect only taste, colour and appearance, not safety – GWI
(Kaieteur News) – The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) has pushed back on a Public Utilities Commission (PUC) report that raised concerns about drinking water quality in Regions 4, 7 and 10, insisting that the issues identified relate to aesthetic and operational factors rather than public health risks.
In a statement issued Thursday, GWI responded directly to a Kaieteur News article headlined “Unsafe drinking water flagged in Regions 4, 7 and 10,” arguing that the framing was misleading and had created unnecessary alarm among consumers.
The PUC report examined treatment facilities at Amelia’s Ward, Wisroc, McKenzie, Linden Power Company, Grove, Friendship, Better Hope, Sparendaam and Bartica, finding that parameters including pH, turbidity and iron concentration fell outside the operational ranges recommended by the World Health Organisation.
Photo of water color back in 2024 at Shelter Belt.
GWI maintains there is an important distinction between aesthetic and operational water quality indicators and those that pose a direct health risk. According to the company, elevated iron, pH imbalance and turbidity affect how water looks, tastes and performs through the treatment and distribution system — not whether it is safe to drink. Critically, GWI says the report did not flag any parameters directly tied to public health as non-compliant.
GWI says it is not ignoring the concerns raised. Many of the treatment plants named in the report were already being upgraded during the 2025 reporting period under the Coastal Water Treatment Infrastructure Programme, with new filtration systems, process optimisation and other improvements aimed at bringing the facilities into fuller compliance. The utility frames this as part of a broader, ongoing modernisation effort across its service network.
On the separate issue of water meter installation, a requirement under PUC Order No. 2 of 2018, GWI reports that it exceeded expectations for most of the period in question. Between 2022 and 2024, the company installed 68,449 domestic meters, averaging 22,816 per year and surpassing the cumulative three-year target of 60,000 by 14 percent.
The company acknowledges that installations slowed in 2025, falling short of that year’s target, but attributes the dip largely to a supply-chain disruption outside its control: its contracted meter supplier, SMC Energy Brazil Ltd., shut down its Brazil operations and shifted manufacturing to China, delaying shipments to Guyana. GWI says other operational factors also contributed to a brief pause in the rollout, but that corrective measures are now in place and installation targets are being monitored to get the programme back on track.
The company expressed disappointment that it was not given an opportunity to offer technical clarification before the original article was published, arguing that doing so would have produced a more “balanced and accurate presentation” of the PUC’s findings.
GWI closed its statement by reaffirming its commitment to transparency and regulatory compliance, and pledged continued investment in infrastructure, treatment processes and distribution networks to ensure water delivered to customers meets applicable health and safety standards
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