As a “Land of Many Waters”, President Dr Irfaan Ali is of the firm view that Guyana should not be importing bottled water given the country’s vast waterways and freshwater resources.
The Head of State made these remarks on Saturday at the commissioning of the new Five Miles Water Treatment Plant at Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).
He charged the Ministry of Utilities and Aviation, headed by Minister Deodat Indar, to come up with a plan that will see, among other things, all the bottled water consumed locally produced right here.
“It can’t be such a resource-rich country in freshwater, and we’re importing bottled water. This Ministry must therefore set its sight on a target of ensuring that all our water consumed locally is produced locally in the next 12 months,” he stated.
According to President Ali, they have already looked at the numbers to economically bottle locally produced water, which could carry a market price of G$100 per bottle, taking into consideration operational costs.
The Guyanese leader went on to add that the local private sector must be involved in this initiative.
“We can have one entity to produce all of the plastic bottle at standard size across the country so that we have economies of scale. We have to look at all the verticals and see how we can have economies of scale at every level so that we can bring down the cost of water. What we have to do is work with the private sector to see how we can actualise this so that a country that is known as the ‘Land of Many Waters’ can have the cheapest water available to its people,” Ali declared.
Pointing to studies that predict a global recession of water in decades to come, the Guyanese leader emphasised the importance of recognising water as an economic commodity and developing an optimisation plan of the total water assets in Guyana.
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