Dear Editor,
It has been over a month since the electricity in the town of Mabaruma went down. The police station, the secondary school, the administrative office receive their supply of electricity from a small generator controlled by the Mabaruma Hospital.
The ordinary residents who depend on this eight hours of electricity are finding it very difficult, especially those who do not have a standby generator. However, there is a cost attached to having a standby generator if it is running for over six weeks. One businessman told me since the electricity has been out of order it has cost him in three weeks a little over $15,000.
The big question is no one knows when the electricity will be restored. There is only one generator to serve this town. At one time there was a standby generator but that could only serve one section at a time. When I enquired at a meeting at Kumaka about that generator I was told that it cannot be refurbished and it was preferable to purchase a new one. It is improbable that one generator can sustain the electricity of this town; they have to give time for servicing these generators so when one is being serviced the other is in place. We do not have factories and industries that depend on electricity.
These generators are not properly monitored so no one knows when they will give out. The operators will have to be much more vigilant and observant if they are interested in jobs and at the same time want to protect government assets.
The Mabaruma Town has a lot of administrators, and none of them seems to know why this generator is down for so long and what is the cause for it being out of order. Some may appreciate what is going on and some may not.
The radio station cannot function because of the lack of electricity so there is no prompt news.
The senior administrators need to communicate and integrate more with residents, especially business people, vendors and farmers; you cannot be in your office and expect to be knowledgeable about what the people want to happen in their communities.
There are some changes in certain parts of the town in terms of the physical layout. More vendors are coming from the city to conduct their business here at Kumaka. There are about four ships that ply the NW route every month; this does not include the Transport and Harbours vessel.
Transport and Harbours improved its service by coming as normal every two weeks.
Port Kaituma is taken care of by the MV Barima every two weeks. They need to bring some sort of respectability to the service. The residents must have a reliable day and date when these boats are departing for the North West District. It is time Transport and Harbours set some standards for the passengers of Region One. People travel from all parts of Guyana just to hear the boat will not be departing until tomorrow or the next day. Now all of this comes because there is no official day, date and time.
Passengers travelling with deck cargo such as a box or a half a bag of provisions should be given a freight note and these should be placed in a safe place under lock and key. These small items should not be placed in the hatch hole. Some passengers have to travel as far as Berbice, Bartica, Mahdia and Parika. It is very hard after travelling for over 24 hours if you then have to wait at the Transport wharf for about two hours to receive your cargo of one box or a bag. By that time transportation will be against you.
I am not one of the political figures here; I am just requesting this as a concerned citizen. I love my Region.
Yours faithfully,
Michael Hope,
Former Regional Councillor
