As the country’s students prepare for the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) and Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE), Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) Devanand Ramdatt is complaining that blackouts continue to adversely affect residents, particularly these students.
The Regional Chairman made this statement to Guyana Times on Thursday.
He said that despite several complaints being reported in the media about the Guyana Power and Light Inc’s failure to provide the necessary advisories, which it committed to provide, it was still not being done.
Region Two Chairman Devanand Ramdatt
Ramdatt explained that a recent article in this publication prompted the power company to make contact with the Region. He noted that a meeting between the two parties was promised by GPL; however, no official date was given.
The Regional Chairman explained that blackouts continued to plague the Region, citing as an example the fact that just on Wednesday during an executive meeting, the Region experienced about three blackouts within a very short time frame, and that too without any notice.
He said that the Region received a notice that there would be a power outage on Tuesday, but nothing for Wednesday.
With the secondary exams soon approaching, Chairman Ramdatt said, “We cannot have our children write exams under these conditions, especially the Information Technology exam.”
Just recently, Ramdatt told this newspaper that the power company had made a commitment to inform residents of the Region about power outages via text message and local media (RCA TV), before the power failures, but this has not been honoured. However, GPL has refuted his claim, saying residents were being informed.
The Chairman informed that during a special meeting regional officials had with the utility’s executives back in June 2017, GPL gave its word to send out advisories of power outages, but within a mere few months, the power company started “slacking off”.
In a much frustrated tone, the Regional Chairman stated that the past month has been the most difficult for residents in Region Two.
Ramdatt said he could provide all the dates that GPL sent out advisories.
He explained that an email from Public Infrastructure Minister David Patterson, dated July 9, 2017, stated, ‘“I will ask GPL to provide advance notice on any load-shedding activities; on the long term, a new set for Anna Regina has been procured already, it is expected to be on site by October. However, we have to complete ground works and other infrastructure issues before we can connect it and have it in full service; it is anticipated all to be completed by November.”’
“We are now in April 2018 and the Region is still suffering from constant blackouts which is causing disruption to all GTT landline phones, GWI water flow and Internet service, just to name a few,” the Region Two Regional Democratic Council (RDC) said in a statement.
As such, the RDC added, residents, especially the business community, are calling on the Government and GPL to speed up the process at the Anna Regina Power Plant and bring some relief to the Region.
