On Sunday, eight-year-old Mark Anthony Girdhari Persaud of Annandale was electrocuted when he came into contact with an illegal electricity connection. This is not the first time someone has been killed by an unlawful power connection and it’s unlikely to be the last as the Guyana Power & Light Company (GPL) has all but admitted defeat in the face of the rampant perpetration of this dangerous crime.
There is a saying that old habits die hard, but this does not mean that they cannot be broken – the bad habits that is. The theft of electricity has not always been with us. There was a time when people paid their bills and those who could not for one reason or the other were cut off after a few months of non-payment.
However, two factors changed all this and saw the development of the current lawless culture of stealing power. The first was rural to urban migration, where many rural dwellers moved to the city in search of jobs and a better life. In some cases entire families moved and in many instances city life took those who were already living near the poverty line below it. People eking out an existence doing menial work for meagre wages would find it hard to find the money for rent and the utilities.
The second causative factor was corruption; power company workers – the name of the utility back then was the Guyana Electricity Corporation (GEC) – began to reconnect disconnected consumers for a fee, which they pocketed. This state of affairs was well known among the population and there was always someone who knew someone who could ‘fix it,’ so that the consumer who owed the power company $50,000 could pay $5,000 and have power again. This illegality was allowed to go on for far too long and it eventually became endemic.
After the power company disbanded its ‘disconnection crew’ and hired private contractors – possibly to stamp out the corruption and possibly because it was less expensive – the former workers not hired by the private contractors became the experts. They were still ‘hired’ by those bent on not paying for electricity which had become too expensive over the years.
In addition, in the problem areas highlighted by GPL – Sophia, particularly Cummings Park and Section D; North and South Ruimveldt; Friendship, East Bank Demerara; Plum Park; Angoy’s Avenue; Soesdyke and Annandale North – where illegal connections are replaced within one day, householders who could no longer afford the under-the-table fee began to do their own connections and reconnections.
In order to hide their dastardly acts, people would do the most unthinkable things – like run their illegal wires along pathways and through trenches in order to conceal them. Since any idiot knows that water is a conductor of electricity, the ‘experts’ running wires to steal power must also be fully aware that their attempts to conceal their crimes could cause electric shock and/or electrocution. One has to assume that they do not care about vulnerable passers-by, children included.
The bill passed recently in Parliament, aimed at curbing widespread theft in the electricity sector, was long overdue. And given the concerns, which GPL has referred to time and again, the new law should have been much harsher; one that truly sends the message that the administration has zero tolerance for persons caught stealing electricity. For instance, imprisonment is only mandatory after three convictions of electricity theft. So a person who is complicit in an act that can cause death is allowed to simply pay a hefty fine, not once, not twice but three times. Is it not obvious that someone who can afford the fines three times can also afford to pay a monthly bill but is choosing not to do so?
At eight, Mark Anthony Girdhari Persaud should not have been in a trench fishing with a younger sibling. That is definitely wrong. Mark was the 11th of 13 siblings; where were the older children and the parents who ought to have been watching these young children? That said, the illegal wire ought not to have been there either. It would not have been there had the administration been more proactive in dealing with the theft of electricity. For years, GPL has been lamenting how huge its losses were to this scourge. Prime Minister Sam Hinds has also spoken of it several times. However, it seems the solution has been to penalise persons already paying for power by subjecting them to increased rates and blackouts. Maybe Mark Anthony Girdhari Persaud’s death will be the wake-up call so desperately needed.
