GWI procuring 26,000 meters to install countrywide

The Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) is in the process of procuring 26,000 water meters to be installed in several areas countrywide.

Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Shaik Baksh said the contracts were awarded and the meters are expected to be available by April this year. Subsequently, installation will commence.

Guyana Water Incorporated CEO, Mr. Shaik Baksh

In a recent interview with the Department of Public Information, Mr. Baksh said the initiative is part of the GWI’s ‘Five-Year Strategic Plan’ to reduce loses in the distribution system through monitoring of water consumption and control demand.

Currently, a large percentage of GWI customers’ bills are estimated and a high percentage of the society is unmetered. This leaves room for water wastage and illegal connections.

Therefore, Mr. Baksh said GWI has established a special unit tasked with crafting a mechanism to reduce the high level of non-revenue losses over the next five year.

“With metering, you bring down consumption because people tend to use water more economically so the metering is an important part of our operations…This will also improve the financial viability of GWI.”

Mr. Baksh announced that an additional 20,000 meters will be catered for in the 2021 National Budget. “We want to meter 80 to 90 per cent of our population within the five years, that is our target,” he announced.

GWI serves approximately 173,197 customers on the coast and there are 6,877 connections in the hinterland regions. As of December 2020, about 4,000 new customers were added to the system.

The PPP/C Government allocated $2.8 billion to GWI through the 2020 Emergency Budget to improve the efficiency of water supply and expand coverage, reduce the level of non-revenue water and expand meter coverage.  

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