Electricity in Mahdia is cut and fuel in Lethem is running low as the impact of the road blockages at Linden bites into interior communities.
“Without a doubt, it is biting. It is biting a bit deep,” Minister of Natural Resources and the Environ-ment, Robert Persaud told reporters yesterday as he spoke on the impact on the mining and forestry sectors. He said he has asked the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission and the Guyana Forestry Commission to do an analysis of the true impact, but the ministry has received some preliminary indications and in relation to bauxite, there is already close to in excess of US$1 million in losses and this could increase given that two ships are due and Bosai only has enough to load one of the ships.
Persaud said already buyers are calling the company and talking about commitments. “Already they are looking at alternatives because people are not gonna be shutting down their smelters waiting on Guyana and I think that is potentially damaging in the long term,” he said.
With regard to Bosai, he said the focus is on resuming operations. He said they have been engaging the bauxite companies, Bosai and Rusal and hopefully there will not be any damaging impact on long-term plans.
In terms of gold mining, some companies have had to incur additional costs for air-lifting, the minister said. “The impact is biting,” he repeated.
Close to 200 dredges have been forced to stop or reduce their operations; some 2,000 miners are feeling the effects of such actions, Persaud said in Parliament yesterday, while contributing to the debate on the no-confidence motion brought against Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee.
Some forestry and sawmilling operations have had to stop while others had to scale down. He added that there are large TSA (timber sales agreement) and SFP (state forest permit) concessionaires as well as community forestry organizations that have also had their operations disrupted.
According to Persaud, there is forestry produce awaiting exportation and he added that orders made to the foresters both externally and locally, have been cancelled.
Persaud said the ministry is working with the mining and forestry communities and providing advice and support. “At the same time, I’m looking at how it is in the long term, it’s always good that we develop alternative routes and access,” the minister said.
Meantime, Region 8 Chairman Mark Crawford told Stabroek News that the Mahdia Power and Light has not been providing electricity since Saturday since it has run out of fuel. He said only persons with private generators have electricity.
He said an option was purchasing fuel from persons who were using a longer, alternative route to take fuel into the Region Eight community but this is not economically viable as it is being sold at double the normal price and the utility cannot raise the rates to recoup the costs. “It makes no sense to buy fuel for (that) exorbitant price,” he said. He also noted that prices for essential items that were available at the normal prices a few days ago are increasing but not as much as had been the case with vegetables. “There is a general increase in most of the shops,” he said.
In Lethem, Vice-President of the Rupununi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI), Alfred Ramsaran said that the situation was “very, very crucial.” He said while the power station is still providing 17 hours of electricity, supplies are low since the power company only had a 12-day supply.
The protests in Linden over a hike in electricity tariffs began 13 days ago and no vehicles have been able to pass since. Ramsaran said yesterday, businesspersons were approached by the company and a proposal was floated that those with generators be disconnected from the grid. This did not find favour with those persons. “We can’t do that, we don’t have fuel,” he said.
He said another proposal was to get fuel from Brazil but this cost more than in Guyana.
In terms of food supplies, he said that these were running low but most items could easily be obtained from Brazil albeit at a higher cost.
