Q. What exactly does this bill do?
A. It forces GWA to install water and sewer
infrastructure to all Chamorro land trust
(CLTC) property leased to local families.
Q. How will it be paid?
A. The costs will be shared equally amongst GWA
commercial and business (including golf courses)
accounts, to be integarated into the rate structure
of their bill. It also prohibits GWA from passing
on these costs to residential and agricultural
customers.
Q. Will this increase my cost of living?
A. No. It will be paid for exclusively by Corporations
and businesses that are large water users such as
hotels, golf courses and commercial laundries. If you
can afford $80 for a round of golf you can afford $85.
Q. I’m not a CLTC recipient how will this benefit my family?
A. 1. It will grow our economy which will pump millions of
dollars into our public structure.
2. With sewage infrastructure being installed on these
lots, most of which are up North, this bill will protect our
aquifer which we all rely on for clean drinking water.
Q. Why should anyone pay for this infrastructure?
A. Because they can afford to and it’s the right thing to do.
The poor have no money. The middle-class families here
on Guam are already carrying the major burden of the cost
of our public structure, so that leaves only the businesses
and corporations that have profited greatly doing
businesses on I Tano I Chamorro, and who now have a
civic duty to pay their fair shares back to the community
who have supported them.
Q. Why does this bill not allow Guam Waterworks Authority
to sub-contract unless it’s impossible to do the job otherwise?
A. The fewer contractors we have to use, the better off the
people of Guam will be. Chamorro families trying to make a
better life for themselves in their own homeland are unable to
afford access to something as basic as water, and they can’t
afford to wait around for the big business bureaucracy while
contracts, sub-contracts and money change hands either.
It will be cheaper to do this project using a public service
agency then who knows how many profit hungry businesses,
and it will be much easier to make sure the job gets done right
and stays affordable.