A standby generator is to be rushed by the government to the Region One town of Mabaruma which has been without power for weeks.
The Ministry of Communities will also be working with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure to procure a new generating set for the town
This was disclosed by Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan in an interview with Department of Public Information/ Government Information Agency yesterday.
The procuring of the new generator is a long-term solution to the problem. Bulkan explained that for the short-term intervention, the Ministry of Natural Resources was yesterday able to source a standby 500kilowatt generator. The Ministry is currently making arrangements to have it transported and installed in the community shortly.
DPI/GINA said that Bulkan expects that this intervention “will kick-in, in soon.” In the meantime, he is asking that, “residents exercise patience as the government works expeditiously to rectify the situation.”
Region One, Regional Executive Officer, Leslie Wilburg said that the generator went down on May 15, 2017, according to DPI/GINA. After purchasing parts to repair the generator, it was discovered that it could not be fixed without spending large sums of money.
Wilburg said that, “The options were either to purchase a new plant, or spend more to repair it.” He considered both options and then shared his recommendations by way of a letter with the Minister of Communities and Minister of Public Infrastructure.
DPI/GINA said that the options were to repair the plant for some $8.4M with a time frame of four to five weeks, or repair for $6M. The other option was to buy a new plant for some $16.7M with one week’s framework for installation, or $14.4M with the installation time of 3-4 weeks.
Stabroek News had reported on June 24 about the weeks-long plight of residents. Up to that point they had been given no assurance as to when the power problem would be rectified.
One businessman in the community had told this newspaper that the situation was “terrible.” He explained that businesses were now closing as soon as the place gets dark. “They have generators but the cost of fuel is high and generators have to be on to freeze food items etc.”
“It is not only affecting business persons but mentally persons are frustrated. Persons in charge of the electricity are not informing the residents of the latest developments. One time they say they were bringing a new generator and then another time they say a mechanic came to fix the old generator. No one knows exactly what is going on and people are frustrated,” he said.
This is not the first time that the community has experienced prolonged periods of power outages. In 2012, residents were without electricity for over a month due to the generating set suffering an overheating problem. The parts were subsequently sent to the city for repairs, but due to “space problems” on the MV Kimbia, officials were having difficulties transporting it to the area.
