Fed up after almost a month without power, several residents of Port Kaituma, in Region One, yesterday protested against the Port Kaituma Power and Light Company (PKPL).
Stabroek News was told that residents decided to protest after the power company failed to provide them with an answer about the restoration of power to the community.
The community has been grappling with a power outage due to a generator failure. In a Facebook post two weeks ago, the power company said, “PKPL wishes to inform its customers that as a result of [a] major mechanical issue, power should be restored within two weeks. PKPL sincerely regrets all inconveniences caused.”
Shem Cuffy, Regional Councillor for the Port Kaituma district, told Stabroek News that “The generator is not able to supply the village with electricity. They had tried to give outlying areas power and cut off the waterfront but the generator was not working.”
Chief Executive Officer of Hinterland Electricity Company Horace Williams yesterday told Stabroek News that efforts are being made to rectify the problem. He noted that his officers were expected to provide him with a report on the status of the works carried out to date.
Despite this, residents of the mining community stressed that PKPL has been dragging its feet on the restoration of electricity and they called on Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson to intervene.
“Someone from government needs to step in and help alleviate this power issue because we, the people, are suffering. I don’t understand why it is so hard to get the generators fixed. This situation is getting worse,” a resident, who was a part of the protest, told Stabroek News. He noted that they plan to continue protesting until the power issue is resolved.
Since the power outage, Stabroek News learnt, gasoline prices have skyrocketed in the community. Prices for five gallons of gasoline range between $11,000 and $15,000.
The community, which has been faced with a fuel shortage for several months, has seen a great demand for gasoline in the past few weeks as residents and businesses have turned to using small generators to meet their needs. As a result of the demand for fuel, prices for services, such as transportation, have also increased.
“Residents have to now pay around $2,000 for a taxi when it was a $1,000. School children have to pay between $200 and $500 to get to and from school. It is getting very hard here and we need the government to step in,” another resident, who asked not to be named, said.
Additionally, the resident told this newspaper that bodies at the mortuary are rotting since there is no electricity to power the refrigerators used to store them.
He explained that recently, family members had to purchase ice and take it to the mortuary in order to prevent a body from decomposing.
The resident noted, too, that the Neigbourhood Democratic Council (NDC) and the police had to take a decision to bury persons who were unidentified due to the mortuary not being able to keep the bodies longer.
