President Irfaan Ali yesterday ruled out abandoning the proposed $496.3 million state-owned bottled-water plant despite objections from local manufacturers and questions about whether the project should be a priority for the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI).
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a Model Village consultation at Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara, Ali said GWI had a responsibility to provide the population with affordable drinking water.
Asked whether the government intended to abort the project, the President responded in the negative.
“GWI is not in competition with anyone,” he said. “GWI, I think—and I have said this publicly—first of all, the local manufacturers should [ask] why foreign water is here displacing them. Why do we have foreign water coming to Guyana to displace local producers?”
Ali said some products were “social in nature” and argued that the government had a responsibility to examine bottled-water prices locally, regionally and internationally.
“When you look at the price of water across the region, internationally, and water here, we have a duty and responsibility to the people,” he said.
The National Assembly approved $496.3 million on July 27 under GWI’s coastal water-supply services programme for the establishment of Guyana’s first state-owned water-bottling plant.
Minister of Public Utilities and Aviation Deodat Indar has said that the facility would help to satisfy national demand, reduce reliance on imported bottled water and strengthen the country’s economic resilience and water security.
According to Indar, local production could lower prices by removing international freight, marine insurance, import-handling costs and distributor mark-ups.
However, the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) this week called on the government to review the proposed project. It warned that direct state participation in a market already served by local manufacturers could undermine existing businesses, discourage investment and divert GWI from its primary responsibility.
Several GMSA members have invested in bottled-water production, distribution networks and employment over many years. Banks DIH and Demerara Distillers Limited are among the major local producers.
“Any initiative by the state should be structured to strengthen, not to compete with or undermine, that existing private investment,” the association said in a statement reported by Kiskadee Watch.
The GMSA said it supported the government’s objective of having all bottled water consumed locally produced in Guyana. It argued, however, that the plan should be implemented through a partnership which lowers costs and expands capacity across the industry instead of creating “a taxpayer-funded competitor to existing private industry”.
The association also called for further consultations with local producers and other stakeholders before the government proceeds.
“The Association is concerned that direct state participation in a market already served by local manufacturers could discourage future private investment, create uncertainty for businesses that have committed substantial capital to the sector, and potentially undermine the Government’s broader agenda of promoting private sector-led growth and industrial development,” it said.
The GMSA maintained that GWI’s central responsibility remained the provision of safe and reliable potable water to every household and that any commercial venture should supplement, rather than distract from, that mandate.
APNU parliamentarian Ganesh Mahipaul has raised similar concerns.
Mahipaul had told Kiskadee Watch that the opposition did not reject a state-owned water-bottling plant in principle but believed the expenditure was difficult to justify while communities continued to experience poor water quality, low pressure, unreliable service and, in some cases, no distribution system.
“At this time, the allocation of $496.3 million towards a water bottling plant is difficult to justify when many communities across Guyana continue to struggle with unreliable water supplies, poor water quality, low water pressure and, in some cases, no access to a proper water distribution system at all,” he said.
Mahipaul argued that GWI’s first responsibility was to provide safe and reliable water through household taps.
“Ordinary Guyanese are not asking the Government to sell them bottled water,” he said. “They are asking for clean water in their homes so they can cook, bathe, wash and drink safely without having to purchase bottled water because the public supply is inadequate.”
He called on the government to publish a business case setting out the proposed plant’s location, production capacity, capital and operating costs, selling price, distribution arrangements, implementation schedule and anticipated return on the investment.
Mahipaul also questioned whether an independent market study had been conducted and how the state-owned plant would avoid competing unfairly with established producers.
Ali announced the wider bottled-water initiative in February during the commissioning of the Five Miles Water Treatment Plant in Bartica. At that time, he set a target for all bottled water consumed in Guyana to be produced locally within 12 months.
“You can’t be such a resource-rich country in fresh water and be importing bottled water,” the President said then.
He had also called for cooperation with the private sector and suggested shared production infrastructure, including standardised bottle manufacturing, to reduce costs and improve competitiveness.
GWI has estimated that locally treated and bottled water could be sold for approximately $100 per bottle or less if operating costs were efficiently managed.
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