Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) Chief Executive Officer Shaik Baksh said last week  that more information on the proposed state-owned water bottling plant is expected to become available by November, while confirming that the equipment for the facility will be sourced from overseas.

“We have not reached the stage where I can give a (release) but we are working on it,” Baksh told Kiskadee Watch, nearly two months after the National Assembly approved $496.3 million for GWI to establish Guyana’s first state-owned bottled-water plant.

It is unclear whether a tender will be put out for the supply of the plant and what would be the arrangements given the concerns raised by the private sector.

The project was approved on July 27 under GWI’s coastal water-supply services programme and has since attracted criticism from local manufacturers and sections of the political opposition over the State’s planned entry into a market already served by private companies.

President Irfaan Ali has defended the initiative, saying GWI has a responsibility to make affordable drinking water available to the population and insisting that the utility is not seeking to compete with private manufacturers.

Ali previously questioned why imported bottled water was continuing to enter Guyana and said the country, with its freshwater resources, should not be importing bottled water. He also set a target for all bottled water consumed in Guyana to be produced locally within 12 months.

Public Utilities and Aviation Minister Deodat Indar has said local production could reduce the cost of bottled water by eliminating expenses associated with international freight, marine insurance, import handling and distributor mark-ups.

GWI has estimated that locally treated and bottled water could eventually be sold for approximately $100 per bottle or less, if operating costs are efficiently managed.

However, the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) has urged the government to review the project, arguing that the State should work with established manufacturers rather than create what it described as a taxpayer-funded competitor to existing private industry.

The association said local producers have already invested substantial capital in bottled-water production, distribution networks and employment. Banks DIH and Demerara Distillers Limited are among the major local producers.

The GMSA has nevertheless supported the government’s objective of having bottled water consumed in Guyana produced locally. Its position is that this should be achieved through partnerships that reduce costs and expand production capacity across the existing industry.

Indar had told private-sector representatives that the government was not producing water to compete with existing businesses and assured stakeholders that existing manufacturers would not be displaced.

Meanwhile, APNU parliamentarian Ganesh Mahipaul has questioned the allocation of $496.3 million to the project while some communities continue to experience poor water quality, low pressure, unreliable supplies and inadequate distribution infrastructure.

Mahipaul called for the government to publish a business case outlining the proposed plant’s location, production capacity, capital and operating costs, selling price, distribution arrangements, implementation schedule and expected return on investment.