Residents in Lethem are still without power as the damaged part of the generator which was returned from the city yesterday had to be sent back since it could not work.
The part is now scheduled to return by Monday so as to get the generator functioning again according to the Chief Executive Officer of the Lethem Power Company (LPC), a resident said.
A protest action is planned by residents later in the month if nothing is done to address the power situation.
One resident, Carlton Beckles, told this newspaper yesterday that in August, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds had promised them a generator with the capacity to supply power to the entire Lethem, but this promise has not been fulfilled to date. He stated that the generator was scheduled to arrive one month after the PM’s visit.
Beckles also added that the power situation in the area has gotten worse and the two small generators at the LPC are not capable of supplying the entire Lethem at once and are unreliable. He also said, “we are concerned about the long-term power situation being fixed so that we can have 24 hours of power.”
Since Monday, residents of Lethem and neighbouring villages were experiencing power outages as one of the generators of the LPC failed, leaving residents with just a daily five hour-supply of electricity. The disruption was the latest to hit the community after a bolt from one of the generators was damaged.
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.
As a result of the ongoing electricity problems, the water supply to villages was also disrupted as immediately after power is cut off, the water goes too.
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 was being powered by two smaller generators. But the community experienced constant blackouts, since these generators could not cope with the demands of the town.
