Dear Editor,
As Guyanese in Lethem continue to endure lengthy blackouts, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds declared in an open letter published by the press, that the government has kept its side of the bargain so the people of that community must pay a higher electricity tariff.
One wonders to which one of the bargains the Prime Minister was referring.
We recall that immediately after the July 7, 2003 landslide ‒ not 2004 as the PM said ‒ that damaged the Moco Moco hydroelectric plant, the PM made promises. At that time, he said at a press briefing that the government will seek
assistance from the Chinese
government to repair the plant at a cost of about $50 to $60 million. The PM also said that the government will look into purchasing electrical power from Bon Fim, in neighbouring Brazil, to ease the plight of the affected Guyanese.
Nothing came of this promise and the stop-gap measures implemented by the government failed to provide any lasting relief to the community. Was this the bargain the Prime Minister meant?
Five years later, on December 6, 2008, Mr Winston Brassington of Guyana Power and Light made more promises to the people of Lethem. These promises were repeated the following year, on September 26, 2009, by the PM himself. On this occasion the bargain was different: The government was finalising an agreement with Incomex, a Brazilian company, to repair the Moco Moco hydroelectric plant. The PM said that the repairs would be completed in less than a year and electricity would be supplied 24/7 by the end of 2010. The people of Lethem were to pay an increased tariff of $55 per kilowatt-hour (Kwh). Back then, residents were getting electricity for about 18 hours per day.
Editor, we are in 2014 and nothing has been done to the Moco Moco power station, and we have not heard another word about Incomex. Was the PM referring to this other bargain that the government did not keep?
Meanwhile, the equipment at the Moco Moco power station has been left to be overtaken by bush, rusted by rain and looted by vandals, after working for only four years; what a waste of taxpayers’ money.
In his most recent letter the PM also said that,”pricing for electricity would be restructured in accord with government policy.”
The question therefore arises: what policy is the PM talking about? The PM also stated that government had purchased 13,500 solar-power units for homes in the community because the dwellings were far apart from each other, and building a grid was difficult. So, does this mean that there is a new policy of using solar power instead of hydroelectric power? And, what happened to the old policy involving the Moco Moco power station and a grid? Can the PM please tell Guyanese what is the present policy?
In his letter the PM acknowledged that many households are not into a regular cash economy; in other words, the people have no money. So, if the PM knows this, where does he expect those households to find cash to pay a whole new tariff of $75 per Kwh ‒ an increase of over 50%?
The PM further stated that Lethem has been getting more than enough. One is left to wonder: more than enough of what? Blackouts, suffering, empty promises and broken bargains?
This government needs to understand: Lethem is not Georgetown or Mabaruma or Moruca; one size does not fit all. A solution for Matthews Ridge will not work in Kwakwani or Linden; they are all different communities and have different needs. Therefore, solutions to problems must be tailored to the community. There is nothing wrong with different tariffs and subsidies for fundamentally different communities; the systems and structures implemented by government must be appropriate to the realities of the people.
Right now, the reality is that Lethem is without electricity. It is therefore unconscionable that the PM would refuse the community’s petition to hold off on the tariff increase until the situation improves.
The people of Lethem have suffered with this same problem for ten years; enough is enough. The PM should not even be talking about an increased tariff; he should be telling the people when they will get some relief from ten years of blackouts. The government needs to start keeping promises, develop a long-term energy policy and stick with it, instead of running around without a plan and hoping that stop-gap, patch-work, ad hoc solutions will somehow work.
Yours faithfully,
Mark DaCosta