Dear Editor,
In July 2006, at a stakeholder meeting at the Hotel Tower on the hydropower project, President Jagdeo said he was very excited that Guyana was going to have a hydropower facility by 2010. I was too, and still am, but it appears that he has lost his enthusiasm on this issue and the new flavour of the day is the LCDS. Guyana cannot benefit from the LCDS in its current form. In our haste to position ourselves globally without a proper foundation, we have expended too much good money poorly constructing a proposal that just would not fly in its current form. This is like socialism, it is a great idea but if poorly implemented by people with a poor ideological foundation and constantly being distracted by corruption, it is a disaster.
The President stated that in 2004, 25% of our GDP went on petroleum purchases (one of the main purchasers was GPL). With a hydropower dam, the oil traders in the market would not have the benefit of determining the cost of our power supply. The financial instability that is associated with the oil market is something Guyana can neither tolerate nor afford. Thus, our failure to build a commercial hydropower station to replace the generators of GPL is most unfortunate for our people. We have had enough time to understand this dilemma and do something about it.
The President said that this investment would be a springboard for investments and developments in the value added sector. I could not have agreed with him more. However, true to form, all that was said by the President was words, more words, with no substance behind it.
Many dates for financial closure came and went and still we have not financially closed the deal (originally set to close in August 2007 in the boom times) and the date to turn on the turbine was supposed to have been December 15, 2010. It is tremendously sad that Guyana would have lost another 5 years as we saddle ourselves with fuel power generators, which will break down again and again. All Guyana should forever remember December 15, 2010 since this was the date when a country with so much raw potential would have been able to rid ourselves of the clear and present danger to our wellbeing called blackouts. However, this hydropower project represents more than an end to blackouts, it represents a people ready to convert their potential into real development.
Want some more word with no action? I quote President Jagdeo again: “Guyana would build the hydro project no matter what.” When that statement was made by the President in January 2008, he shifted the date of completion to December 15, 2011. If there is any project the inheritors of power can do that will have an overwhelmingly positive impact on Cheddi Jagan’s people (the working class of all races), it is to commit to and build this hydropower project, even if we have to defy the IMF and issue a country financial guarantee to the financiers.
Yours faithfully,
Sasenarine Singh
