Linden suffers 12-hour blackout

The community of Linden suffered a 12-hour blackout commencing on Wednesday night due to circuitry issues with Bosai’s power distribution with power being restored yesterday midday.

“We had a problem with [the circuitry because of damage]. But we were able to temporarily bypass it,” said Bosai’s Community Relations Officer Vanessa Davis in a comment to this newspaper. She said that while the problem has been rectified for the time being, spares to repair burnt and damaged components would have been in the country by yesterday afternoon and upon their arrival repair work will commence.

She said that it is envisaged that by today the works would have been completed as the plan was to work during the night.

Davis said that upon the fixing of the problem, the Linden Hospital Complex and the bauxite plant were the first to receive power. She said they were powered up at around 10:30 hours yesterday with the rest of the community getting back power at around midday.

The issue of electricity in Linden has been on the front burner politically and economically since Government announced during the 2012 budget that the subsidy to the community for electricity was being scaled back. This prompted protests in Linden which culminated in the police shootings of three protesters leading to the appointing of a Commission of Inquiry and an agreement which had among its aims an examination of the electricity tariff and economic realities of the mining town prior to any further action on the part of Government.