Van West-Charles promises to address Bath Settlement water woes

[www.inewsguyana.com] – Following complaints from customers of Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice about a reduction in the level of service provided to the community, Chief Executive Officer of GWI, Dr. Van West-Charles held a meeting with the leaders of the community as well as affected residents on Monday.

According to a GWI press statement, residents indicated that due to the prolonged dry season, a significant amount of water provided by GWI is currently being utilized for Agricultural purposes including small ‘kitchen gardens’ and ‘cash crops.’ It was explained that in the absence of consistent rainfall, GWI’s service is utilized for both Agricultural and domestic purposes.

“Residents of Bath Settlement welcomed the intervention by Dr. Van West-Charles and agreed to partner with the GWI West Coast Berbice in formulating a water distribution schedule which would benefit all members of the community.

Further, the GWI Chief Executive Officer indicated that he is exploring utilizing an electrical pump with a larger capacity to increase the level of distribution to customers of Bath Settlement. The CEO indicated that he has committed the GWI Operations team to explore increasing the capacity of the well station which provides service to the community and increasing the pumping hours,” the release stated.

Meanwhile, Dr. Van West-Charles explained that this practice has decreased the amount of water available in the distribution system for domestic purposes.

The Chief Executive proposed that customers and GWI’s West Coast Berbice team agree on specific times in which GWI’s service will be utilized exclusively for Agricultural purposes as well as particular hours in which the service will be used for domestic purposes.

“It is pivotal that customers utilizing the service for both purposes receive an adequate supply at specific times of the day…I have tasked the GWI team with coordinating with residents the schedule which will be utilized to provide adequate water for these specific tasks which are both vital to the community,” said the CEO.