Lethem remained in darkness last evening with electricity reduced to five hours a day as the generator suffered further problems, but a critical part is expected to arrive in the border community today.
“The situation is worse than before,” said a frustrated Jacqueline D’Aguiar, the president of the Rupununi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RCCI). She said that efforts are ongoing to fix the generator and one part arrived in the community on Thursday, but other problems were discovered and the community continues to face prolonged power outages. It is hoped that these would end when the other part arrives today.
Since Monday, residents of Lethem and neighbouring villages were experiencing power outages as one of the generators of the Lethem Power Company (LPC) failed, leaving residents with just a daily five hour-supply of electricity.
The disruption is the latest to hit the community after a bolt from one of the generators was damaged. On Monday, Lethem was left without electricity during the course of the afternoon only to have a limited supply of power later in the night. From then onwards, power has been sporadically distributed to it and neighbouring villages.
As a result of the ongoing electricity problems, the water supply to villages was also disrupted as immediately after power is cut off, the water goes too.
During the course of last month, this newspaper had reported that after the failure of the main generating set about two months ago, the growing town was being powered by two smaller generators. But the community experienced constant blackouts, since these generators could not cope with the demands of the town.
Power outages have been a constant feature in Region Nine since the Moco Moco hydropower station was damaged almost a decade ago and proposals to repair it were found to be too costly. As a result, there has been no stable power supply for the region.
