On Friday, a symbolic ceremonial groundbreaking marked the official launch of a long-awaited residential water access expansion project for Block 3 of the Sunny Point neighborhood, located in Suriname’s Wanica District. The initiative, led by the Suriname Water Supply Company (SWM), aims to deliver individual, reliable drinking water connections to every household in the area, addressing longstanding access and conflict issues tied to shared water infrastructure.
Under the project’s design, every registered household will receive a private, locked outdoor water tap, even on plots of land that host multiple separate residences. Until all households complete their connection to the new network, residents will still be able to collect free water from public roadside standpipes that have served the area to date.
One of the biggest barriers to connection for local residents has been the high upfront connection fee, which ranges from 18,000 to 23,000 Surinamese dollars. SWM Director Clifton Lienga announced that the company has introduced a flexible payment solution to remove this barrier. “We have structured an affordable installment plan for residents,” Lienga explained. “After completing registration for a connection, households will pay a small amount each month until the full cost is covered, eliminating the need for a large one-time payment.”
To speed up access and cut down on wait times, SWM has also drastically simplified the registration process for new connections. Registration desks set up at the project’s launch ceremony drew large crowds of interested residents eager to sign up. Lienga noted that the company intentionally cut bureaucratic red tape to avoid unnecessary delays. “If we required land titles and full documentation upfront, residents would wait months longer for service,” he said. “Our core mission is to deliver safe, reliable drinking water to this community, so we only require a national ID card for registration. Once residents register, we move forward with connecting their tap immediately.”
The decision to install individual locked taps stems from past problems with shared access in the neighborhood. Locks prevent unauthorized use of a household’s water connection, and individual connections eliminate a common source of conflict: when multiple households shared a single connection, one resident was often left responsible for the full monthly water bill, leading to disputes over usage and costs. SWM projects that between 700 and 1,000 households in Block 3 will ultimately receive new connections through the project.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, Suriname President Jennifer Simons reaffirmed the national government’s ongoing support for SWM’s mission to expand universal access to safe drinking water across the entire country. She also urged local residents to practice water conservation and care for the new distribution network to prevent water theft and avoid contamination of the drinking water supply.
Lienga confirmed that once every household in Block 3 has received their own private connection, the existing public roadside standpipes will be decommissioned and removed.