His Excellency President Dr Irfaan Ali said that his Government has invested more than $65bn to develop the water sector in the country, which has resulted in almost the entire population, over 98%, having access to potable water.
The Head of State made the proclamation while delivering remarks at the commissioning ceremony of the new Caledonia Water Treatment Facility on the East Bank of Demerara on Sunday afternoon.
The President underscored that Guyanese from all walks of life are benefiting from the efforts of GWI. He said that from 2020 to 2024 access to potable water has increased from 46% to 91% in Hinterland areas.
Due to this drive, Guyana is expected to fulfil its United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Six commitment before the end of the year, five years ahead of the UN target.
In an effort to expand the reach and quality of water delivered to residents and for commercial use across the country, the President also announced that the Guyana Water Inc., through strategic investments from his Government, will become a national water management entity.
“Water resource management is not only about treated water and drinking water for the population. It is about ensuring we have availability of water for all of Earth’s existence, whether it’s the trees, the animals, agriculture, and it’s about managing water resources in a way that it can meet the requirement of all that is existing in our ecosystem.”
A vital aspect of this, the President added, will be ensuring that fire hydrants, through the national hydrants programme, are critically integrated into the network plan of GWI to improve firefighting response time in communities.
“Important also is sustainability, and part of the mandate that the management of GWI would have received was to ensure the greater use of fresh water into the water management system, and one important project I think would commence shortly, that is the Hope Canal water treatment facility. We’re hoping to have one in Diamond and then in Region Three, wherever we are dumping fresh water, we are dumping expensive assets, and we have to convert that asset into value. So that is what the future would require of us.”
The commissioned facility is the first of seven large treatment plans that are being constructed across the country.
It will serve over 12,000 people with water treated to reduce iron to 0.1 milligrams per litre, below the World Health Organization (WHO) standard.
Minister of Housing and Water, the Honourable Collin Croal, GWI’s CEO, Mr Shaik Baksh and other Government officials were also at the event.
