Dear Editor,
After twenty years of PPP/C rule, the residents of the Upper Corentyne still cannot enjoy a reliable supply of electricity from GPL.
This past week, we suffered over 10 hours of blackout on Monday, two-and-a-half hours of blackout on Tuesday, and over ten hours of blackout on Friday, for a total of more than 20 hours of blackout in a week! It was also impossible to get through to the GPL hotline at 333-2186 to find out when power would be restored. I tried for several hours to get through to this number to no avail. Either the workers there are using this line for personal use, or they are not hanging up the phone because they do not want to answer phone calls.
This situation is unacceptable, and is insulting to hardworking residents and businessmen who suffer significant financial losses, as well as emotional distress at the total disrespect and the uncaring attitude demonstrated to us by GPL and its staff.
To add insult to injury, Kaieteur News reported that it would take at least four weeks for the power supply to improve, but that is of little relief to us because GPL has never offered a reliable supply of power to the Upper Corentyne area. I challenge Mr Bharat Dindiyal and Mr Ayube Bacchus to state whether, in the last year, there was ever a one month period where a reliable supply of power was provided to the Upper Corentyne.
GPL has constantly been making promises but they have never kept them.
Around July this year, Mr Ayube Bacchus promised that our electricity supply would improve, and guess what, on the contrary, it has significantly deteriorated. There is no evidence that GPL has the desire, the skills, or the management team needed to urgently fix this situation.
While this should be a troubling situation that draws the attention of GPL’s management as well as the PPP/C leaders, no one is paying attention to the plight of our area because, apparently, they are all rich enough to have their own power generators and back-up supply, so they are not affected by blackouts like the ordinary citizens of this area are.
What do we have to do for GPL to get its act together and stop making lame excuses, and provide us with a dependable supply of electricity? Do we have to block roads, and burn bridges and protest like other areas?
Talk to anyone in this area and they will tell you they are fed up and that if things don’t change, it will reach a breaking point soon. Our children’s studies are being affected, our food is spoiling, our businesses cannot perform. Life cannot continue like this for four more weeks, or for however long it will take for GPL to fix the power supply.
To put things into context, GPL should look to New York and New Jersey, where reliable power is already being restored to large sections of the population, mere days after the horrible destruction of Hurricane Sandy. Or it can look right here at home at GT&T which inherited an absolute mess in the early 1990s and completely transformed and revolutionized the communications sector in Guyana.
So don’t tell us about how we have to wait for four weeks for a promised improvement when the problems we face aren’t caused by devastating natural disasters or financial bankruptcy, but by an incompetent management team at GPL, that is bankrupt of ideas to fix our electricity sector.
Editor, after twenty years of PPP/C rule, it is time that this party take action and immediately fix our electricity supply on the Upper Corentyne. Don’t take us for granted because people are sick and tired of GPL’s nonsense and if the PPP/C government doesn’t act immediately to fix this situation, people will take action at the next election, whenever it is, and either vote for APNU or AFC, or stay home and not vote.
Yours faithfully,
Pradeep Singh
