Dear Editor,
It is now 3.23 am in the morning, Saturday, January 21st, and I cannot sleep.
I arrived home in Cotton Tree, Berbice from a trip to Georgetown at 9.00 pm Friday night to a house in total darkness. Blackout again! Thankfully I have enough battery life on my macBook Pro for me to start this letter.
I have no idea how long ago it started, but I do know that the areas affected are extensive. Soon after crossing the Abary River, we drove many miles in blackout before reaching home, and I know it extended all the way to Rosignol. Trying to sleep is a nightmare. I have an almost brand new air-conditioning unit sitting in storage as the house is usually breezy.
But with electricity now attracting a whopping 14% VAT increase, I’m trying to conserve on my use of electricity to keep my GPL bills below the $10,000 limit. My dilemma is choosing between the breeze and the mosquitoes that relentlessly invade homes in this community at nights. So to avoid the risk of getting Chikungunya, Zika or Malaria, I kept the doors and windows closed to keep out the mosquitoes. But without electricity, the fans I bought to replace the AC are completely useless now. The place is so hot, I just took a second shower since returning home, thinking of how rapidly the quality of life is deteriorating under this APNU government.
And although Kaieteur News columnist, Freddie Kissoon has repeatedly written about the adverse effects these constant blackouts are having on the population, it appears that the government is not listening. Many now believe we’re heading back to the dark days when “load shedding” became a household name under the PNC.
What bothers me is GPL’s lack of respect for consumers. Why can’t the Guyana Power & Light (GPL) send out text messages warning consumers of scheduled power outages a day or two before? And even if an emergency occurs to cause an unscheduled blackout, GPL should still send a text message to consumers in the affected area to give them the assurance that they are aware of the problem and working to restore electricity ASAP. But this is not being done, consumers are taken for granted, and we get no apology from this monopoly. Does GPL understand the importance of customer service? Do they even have a PR department? For if so, it doesn’t seem to be functioning.
All day Saturday, January 20th I’ve waited for the power to return. My entire day has been wasted and yet not even a courtesy text message from GPL to explain the reason for the blackout. Electricity has finally been restored to large sections of Region 5 at about 7.00pm, more than 20 hours later. This is unbearable, unacceptable, and we, the people of Region 5, demand better service from GPL.
This is not the “good life” we were promised.
Yours faithfully,
Harry Gill (PPP/C
MP)
