“NO power means no business” Essequibians lament as blackout continues -Strike action to continue today

Aug 29, 2018 News, Kaieteur News, https://www.kaieteurnewsonline...n-to-continue-today/

Essequibians continue to take a firm stand against the Guyana Power and Light [GPL], as continuous power outages continue to plague the Essequibo Coast.

Protestors yesterday making their way to the GPL’s Anna Regina office, Region Two.

After more than a week of continuous power outage, residents on the Essequibo Coast believe that the state owned company, has failed miserably in providing a service that even reaches a ‘minimal’ satisfactory rate. According to residents, GPL has also failed in providing a comprehensive update on the company’s ability to power the entire coast.

The company had issued a release, which indicated that two of its four generator sets became inoperable due to mechanical and electrical issues. GPL further noted that to restore the peak demand of power, two generator sets from Berbice were to be rushed to the Coast. This publication understands that the two sets arrived at the Anna Regina power station during the course of last week, yet there was no improvement in the company’s ability to power the region.

Kaieteur News was on the scene yesterday where it was observed that while six generators were at the Anna Regina Power plant; only two of which were in operation. The working condition of the other four generator sets is presently unknown.

In an effort to garner answers from GPL, Essequibians peacefully protested in front of Power Company’s Anna Regina’s office yesterday.

The protesters included residents from various communities throughout the Coast, representatives from the Essequibo Chamber of Commerce and the Guyana Tourism Association.

One businesswoman who lives in the Queenstown village, said that within 12 days, she has incurred some $50,700 in fuel expense.

“It hard because the economy down; when we use to sell $100,000, now we selling $50,000. Where we gonna get money to buy gas… No power is no business… If the people walk in and they say they want a bottle Smirnoff and it ain’t got ice, they gon walk out back the same way the walk in. So I gotta run meh generator every 24 hour when it got blackout.”

While at the company’s office yesterday, protestors were allegedly told that information cannot be divulged to then, unless cleared by officials from the head office.

The Regional Vice Person, Juliet Coonjah told the media last Friday that the RDC was attempting to convene a multi-stakeholder meeting with the representatives of GPL. As was related to this publication, however, the meeting was not convened since the Regional Executive Officer had failed to make the necessary arrangements.

In the meantime, communities such as Charity, Suddie, Supenaam and Pomona are grossly affected by the power cuts.

According to reports, the protest is scheduled to continue today as consumers attempt to find answers to the following questions, “We need to know what happened to the remaining engines… we want to know if they could actually fix the engines because they keep going in and it keep breaking down… So why they can’t fix it up to now, it’s weeks. If the rest of generator sets are ‘really’ nonfunctional why bring them to the Coast in the first place.”