GWI in another disconnection campaign for $2.4 billion
Guyana Chronicle
January 6, 2007
GUYANA Water Inc (GWI) has embarked on another massive disconnection campaign to collect some $2.4 billion owed by customers.
Debt Recovery Manager Jeanette Thomas said yesterday that Georgetown consumers alone owe more than $1 billion, followed by those on East Coast Demerara, Corentyne, Berbice and East Bank Demerara.
She told a press conference, at Shelter Belt, on Vlissengen Road in the city, that, even as it entered the new year, GWI continues to face great challenges in the collection of money due to the uility.
Ms. Thomas appealed to private, metered and unmetered consumers to honour their obligations to the company, by paying their water and sewerage bills in a timely manner.
She said GWI is in urgent need of revenue to pay suppliers, the largest being Guyana Power & Light (GPL), and failure to collect water tariffs will impact severely and hinder planned development works.
The disconnection teams will outfitted in overalls and an identification badge in the field from January 15.
Thomas pleaded with customers to avoid disconnection and pay all outstanding charges.
She alluded to the Payment Arrangement Plan available for users who cannot afford to clear their accounts at one time.
Thomas added that, even though the new ‘HiAffinity’ billing system replaced the old for Georgetown and rural areas, July and November last year customers are still not paying arrears.
She said the change was effected with no hiccups and GWI has billed all unmetered customers up to December 31 and metered users in the city up to October.
Thomas explained that customers outside the city will be sent bills for the third quarter of 2006 within the first quarter of this year.
She reported that a similar disconection drive last year was reasonably successful and GWI was able to collect about $1.6 billion of the targeted $2.4 billion.
Thomas said, during that exercise, they disconnected customers with arrears above $10,000 but, this year, those owing below and above $10,000 will be cut off.