El Paso is a community located in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), west of the Tumatumari Falls, a scenic haven for its less than 200 residents, most of whom are indigenous people.
Because it is near the waterfall and many of its early settlers came from across the river at Tumatumari, El Paso is fondly called ‘Chumachumari’ or Chumatch’ for short.
The waterfall was where the Tumatumari Hydropower Station was set up in 1957 by British Guiana Goldfields Limited. The plant closed in 1959. In 1969, the Government of Guyana recommissioned the plant to be a power source for the Guyana National Service sites at Tumatumari and Konawaruk. This brought about the construction of an embankment dam, concrete overflow dam and a two-unit powerhouse that had a capacity of 1500 kW, using 2 x 750 kW Francis turbines. However, the hydropower station ceased all operations in the early 1980s. Older residents in the community boasted that decades ago when it was functioning, El Paso was the best lit community in Region Eight.
