Minister shocked as Matthews Ridge without electricity since March

…issue resolved within 1 day

Newly-appointed Public Works Minister, Bishop Juan Edghill was left dismayed on Monday after it was learnt that the community of Matthew’s Ridge in Region One (Barima-Waini) has been living without electricity since March.
The Minister was made aware of issues plaguing the region throughout the past months during an engagement with Regional Chairman, Brentnol Ashley and Vice Chairman, Sarah Brown.

Special emphasis was placed on the electricity woes, referring to Matthew’s Ridge whereby five months have elapsed without any power supply.
Minister Edghill expressed shock at this revelation and positioned, “Notwithstanding the issues of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) and the Ministry of Public Health safety guidelines, this matter should have already been resolved.”
Further, he assured the regional executives that action will be taken to resolve the matter assiduously. He has since acted swiftly and instructed his team at the Hinterland Electrification Company Incorporated to make contact with the engineers on the ground to have the engines up and running. By Monday night, the people were expected to regain power.
The People’s Progressive Party in their campaign manifesto had rolled out a promising energy plan after the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) was grappling to provide reliable energy due to the shortfall in capacity.
It included not only a significant reduction in costs, but some 400-megawatt (MW) capacity – which is more than double the less than 200 MW that was generated at that time. Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo, during his capacity as Opposition Leader at the time, had blamed this shortfall on the coalition Administration’s “lack of vision”.
He had slammed the coalition for scrapping the Amaila Falls Hydro Project (AFHP), which he noted would have brought in some 160 megawatts of renewable power into the national grid by mid-2017.
The AFHP, which was initiated under the PPP Administration, was continually blocked by the then APNU and AFC combined Opposition while controlling the National Assembly by a one-seat majority. The AFHP would have assisted GPL to get adequate electricity supply, thus, providing cheaper and more reliable power to citizens and businesses. But the Norway-funded project was scrapped and Government has diverted its US$80 million funding, which Guyana has earned for sustaining its rainforests to absorb global carbon emissions, to a 100-megawatt solar energy project.
The former Head of State had promised that if the PPP returns to office, which it did, then resuscitation of the Amaila Falls Project would be among its top priorities for the energy sector. While this would take some time to establish, the PPP already had plans to move on to a gas power plant to build capacity and baseload. (G11)