Almost a year after Prime Minister Samuel Hinds told Lethem residents that an agreement to rehabilitate the long defunct Moco-Moco hydroelectricity plant would be finalized with a Brazilian company, nothing has been done.

A businessman told Stabroek News earlier this week that since the PM made the statement, they have heard nothing more while other residents said recently that the Hydroelectricity Station, or what is left of it, continues to lie in thick bushes and has been vandalized. They pointed out that when a section of the conduit pipes was washed away by rain, nothing was wrong with the turbines. The residents questioned why the government allowed such an expensive venture with China to go to waste.

Several attempts to get an update from the Office of the Prime Minister this week were futile. Head of the Privatization Unit and Chairman of the Guyana Power Company, Winston Brassington, who had also told residents on December 6, 2008 about the proposal to rehabilitate the hydro station, was contacted but he said he had to check on developments. Calls to him on Wednesday went unanswered.

Last September, Hinds had told the residents that an agreement was expected to be finalized last October for a Brazilian company to rehabilitate the Moco-Moco hydroelectricity plant.

The PM, who is the minister responsible for the electricity sector, had said that the plant would be operational within a year. He had said that the company would be repairing the power station and pipelines that were damaged in the landslide – which put it out of operation over seven years ago, since July 2003. The Prime Minister had assured residents that this would take less than a year. Stabroek News had been told that the company had approached government with the offer some time back.

Since the Moco-Moco Hydro was severely damaged by a landslide, Lethem has experienced a problematic electricity supply. There is a growing demand for power in the border community.  In June, residents suffered lengthy blackouts after the generator malfunctioned. More recently, because of the damaged Linden/Lethem road, fuel trucks could not reach the community and some had to be flown in while there were also blackouts.