Several stalls at Stabroek Market without power since Wednesday

The electricity supply of several vendors at Stabroek Market was disrupted since Wednesday and despite several calls to the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), the situation remains the same.
Further, on Thursday, confusion broke out after a small transformer in the Market caught fire thus injuring a few persons who were present in the area.
Guyana Times understands that the merchants turned up to work on Wednesday and later recognised that over 15 stalls were not receiving electricity. As such, the power company was contacted and the officials promised to look into the matter.
However, it was only on Thursday, a small crew of technicians arrived at the location, but they could not make a pronouncement on the power outage situation beyond stating that there was a ‘fault’ in the transformer.
The stallholders were later informed that they should hire a private technician to address the issue.
Speaking with this publication, one of the concerned stall owners, Travez Piaralall explained: “Yesterday when we came to work, some of the shops inside the Stabroek Market don’t have power. We usually get power supply from GPL. We have made multiple reports during the course of yesterday about the situation and that some of the shops are not having power.”
He added, “This morning (Thursday), they send some technicians over and found a fault and the box started to spark. They’re not taking any blame for it. The office called us back at the Market and said that we need to find an electrician to fix the problem. They said they can’t do anything about the issue and behaved very rude.”
He explained that many stalls were without power and complete negligence was shown on the part of GPL for not addressing the issue.
“We cannot do that because we don’t have power in the first place. Secondly, GPL has to give permission before someone can interfere with the set-up. There are many shops that are not getting electricity in the market. We don’t have power to do anything, so how can we fix our problem?”
It was indicated that vendors and shop owners are paying a monthly fee for power and should be able to receive quality service.
“Every month we’re paying a bill and as soon as you miss a deadline, they come into the Market and cut off the power. This has nothing to do with anybody cutting the power. We simply haven’t been receiving electricity from GPL.”
This publication visited the Market and was informed that some persons were injured when the transformer box “sparked”. Additionally, it created a small fire, which caused persons to run for their lives.
The flames were later doused and no major damage was recorded.
A vegetable vendor, Sahadeo Ramgopaul, whose stall is mere inches from the transformer, related that he received injuries to his back when the incident occurred.
Nevertheless, the situation remains dangerous, since the transformer can cause an uncontrollable fire when persons are not monitoring the area. Moreover, many fear that their customers can be injured.