Much needed repairs on generator sets that power towns in the hinterland are among the immediate public infrastructure priorities of the new People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government.
Following the revelation that Matthews Ridge had been without power for months, Minister of Public Works Juan Edghill on Wednesday said that the ministry decided to assess all the other generator sets in the hinterland.
“When we arrived at the ministry, the seven areas that are being served by generated power in the Hinterland Electricity Programme, those generators have not been adequately maintained and serviced and there was an immediate request for $281 million, almost $282 million, to carry out much needed repairs on these generators,” he said.
He added that hinterland electrification has been a priority to the PPP/C administration before 2015 and is a priority in 2020 under the new government. He further noted that there was a lack of proper maintenance of generation sets in Matthews Ridge and as a result the community was without power for several months. He stated that when he contacted residents on Tues-day, they reported that they are now receiving power because the generators are up and running.
As a result, attention was turned to Mahdia, Lethem, Port Kaituma and Mabaruma and the ministry learned that the towns have also been experiencing their own power supply difficulties due to the lack of proper maintenance of generation sets. “This is something that the ministry will have to pursue almost immediately but like I said there was that request for the $281 million to carry out this particular operation,” he said.
However, he stated that most of what the new government has inherited from the former government is broken and the treasury has been left empty. “The things that you would’ve thought would be dealt with and fixed would been fixed and now we have to find the money to make all hinterland generators moving,” he said.
He noted that the government will continue to pursue renewable energy initiatives and one of the programmes that was on the agenda of the former government but which did not move forward is the distribution of upgraded solar units for households in the hinterland. “The president has since engaged the Indian High Commissioner and shortly the final programme will be announced, because it is currently being designed, where we can see household solar units, possibly 20,000 to 35,000 being procured for communities in the hinterland,” he added.
Edghill reminded that the former PPP/C government distributed solar panels to hinterland regions. He noted that solar panels they had distributed then would’ve been 65 watts and the solar panels that would be distributed would be 100 watts along with accessories like batteries and inverters.
Additionally, he stated, they are also planning to distribute 3,000 watt solar panels to at least 100 communities in the initial stages. “So apart from household power we are looking to do in the first instance one hundred 3000-watt systems for community centralised power to ensure that internet hubs are powered and computer systems and phones are charged and this can benefit the education sector because we don’t know when COVID is going to be gone,” he said, while adding due to the closeness of government buildings in communities, these panels can also be used to power health centres and schools. He added that that not only indigenous communities will benefit from this initiative but also communities in riverine areas that do not have access to a power supply.
