Dear Editor,
Essequibians are tired and fed up with constant blackouts over the past month. Worst of all the people in Region Two cannot get access to the internet or a telephone service, and if there is a robbery or an emergency like a fire you cannot make contact with the 911 service.
No attention has been paid to an Essequibo energy policy for decades; it may come as a surprise that the majority of households and businesses from Suddie to Charity are in blackout on a daily basis with no internet and telephone service. This poses a real and immediate threat to the future of our region.
The people of this region are very sensitive and would speak with one voice at elections. The PPP took us for granted for 23 years and they paid the ultimate price by losing seats in the 2011 and 2015 regional and general elections. The leaders of the party would come into the region and meet with their contractor friends, disregarding the cries of the people; they turned a blind eye to their problems and never tried to address them, especially in the case of blackouts and falling paddy prices, so the people decided to vote them out of office.
Our newly elected officials have not come forward with a plan to protect and rebuild this delicate and vital region with a reliable and stable energy supply; this was one of their main focal points in their election campaign. We know that the coalition has just assumed office and will need some more time to fix things, but we still believe that the minister responsible for infrastructure should try to make some effort at least to buy the needed parts for the Wartsila engines and make our lives a little more comfortable. Government should also revisit the deal with GT&T; this company has been in existence for over three decades with very little improvement in telecommunication and internet service. Thankfully, the technicians are very efficient whenever a complaint is made.
What I find is happening is that customers have to pay a fixed monthly charge for their telephone and internet, but when we compute the loss of time when we are not getting the full service, we end up receiving half a month’s service for our hard-earned money. The bandwidth that we are receiving is less than what we are paying for; the internet is very slow and the telephone is worse. When you pick up the receiver there is no dial tone and if you happen to reach the other party at the other end, you cannot hear his voice or it is broken up. This has been going on for years with no solution to the problems.
I was in Mumbai, India in 2008, for two months. The electricity, telephone and internet service is reliable and excellent; you can reach any part of the world when you dial your number on your cell phone or landline in a jiffy, with good reception, and the internet speed is very good. As I look at other countries which gained independence after or about the same time as Guyana, they are way ahead in terms of technology. We will have to acquire, adapt and develop technology as the propellant, so to speak, for our development activities. We will not get far without the assistance of such technology. Such technology must be appropriate to our needs and have a direct relevance to our resource base and our environment. Politicians and government must stop the blame game about the past 28 and 23 years and get on with the job that they were elected to do.
Yours faithfully,
Mohamed Khan
