Residents of Lethem and neighbouring villages are again trying to cope with power outages as one of the generators of the Lethem Power Company (LPC) failed, leaving residents with a daily five hour-supply of electricity since Monday.
The disruption is the latest to hit the community after a bolt from one of the generators was damaged. Residents stated that an official from the LPC informed them that the electricity supply will return to the normal 19 hours per day from tomorrow.
On Monday, Lethem was left without electricity during the course of the afternoon only to have a limited supply of power later in the night. From then onwards, power has been sporadically distributed to it and neighbouring villages.
One resident told this newspaper yesterday that as a result of the ongoing electricity problems, the water supply to villages were also disrupted as immediately after power is cut off, the water goes too. He added “even the 19 hours of electricity is not guaranteed and water and power are two important ingredients of life.”
During the course of last month, this newspaper had reported that after the failure of the main generating set about two months ago, the growing town has been powered by two smaller generators but the community experienced constant blackouts since the generators could not cope with the needs of the town.
Power outages have been a constant feature in Region Nine since the Moco Moco hydropower station was damaged almost a decade ago and proposals to repair it were found to be too costly. As a result, there has been no stable power supply for the region.
