Latest update March 28th, 2024 12:59 AM
Nov 09, 2008 Letters
Dear Editor,
The headline ‘Xmas should be bright,’ on the November 1st edition of the SN, was indeed a deceitful one.
‘GPL assures no planned power outages for Christmas’ was on the Guyana Chronicle the same day, while ‘Dark Christmas averted’ was on the Kaieteur News on November 1.
It was no accident these headlines graced the dailies that day, which is, for many, the first “unofficial” day of the Christmas season.
Little did we know that the headlines were as misleading as can be. Several blackouts graced several areas in Berbice that same day.
The trend continued into this past week, with numerous power outages on various days and during the nights.
Just when we had thought it was over, customers in East Canje and the Corentyne coast braced for a four-hour blackout on Thursday, November 6 from approximately 5pm through to 9:30pm.
It went again on Friday, November 7 at 1:00pm, and never came on until after 4:00pm. The entire East and West Berbice, or at least major portions thereof, were without power from 5:30 pm again that afternoon.
I believe it is time to heed the PNCR’s call for an investigation into the operations of the power company. It is high time.
GPL promises us reliable electricity supply for Christmas, but when does GPL consider Christmas to begin? Is it the week of the holiday in December, or the day alone?
Again, the traditional promises were made at this time of the year; they come like an annual holiday when we go through the same motions, come as if customers do not deserve a reliable electricity supply throughout the rest of the year. Every single year, generators are being rented at very high cost.
They have released to the nation that the demand for power is more than they can ever supply. What a revelation! They have also revealed that the usual Christmas demand for power is being experienced already — weeks before the traditional Christmas season even begins.
Dr. Roger Luncheon, according to the newspaper reports, noted ‘significant improvements in electricity generation in Berbice,’ but this is not so.
Prime Minister Hinds assured that ‘power generation is back to near normal levels,’ and that, too, is a lie, because the current situation in Berbice demonstrates otherwise.
They are building a new power station in Georgetown, so what about Berbice? Improve what you have before building new systems. I don’t even want to discuss the Skeldon Factory at this time.
If we are having these outages at this time, what will happen when people start putting all those decorative lights on their homes for Christmas? Surely, the demand will rise, but can GPL supply the needed power?
Then some areas are receiving more blackouts at Niagara in Canada etc. This approach to the lip of the falls is a disaster waiting to happen if hand rails or barriers are not erected.
The little guest house was in a state of disrepair for sometime (I understand there’s an improvement now of sorts)
Sometime in the 90’s I was Tour Guide for eight foreign tourists at Orinduik (both male and female) and apart from a rickety benab with a roof more porous than an Amerindian sifter (waichee), there were no other facilities, so after lunch during a downpour of rain whereby raindrops mingled freely with lunch in the lunch boxes, I was approached by a foreign female tourist, who asked to be directed to the wash room, Ha! Ha! there was no wash room but Eureka!
As quick witted as I am, I observed a small hill not too far from our lunch benab “Madam! I said “I am afraid you’ll have to go behind the hill” in my most mannerly and polite fashion.
In all fairness to the stakeholders (a favourite word used in Government circles) I do not know what presents itself today but I have a sixth sense that tells me that the facilities at Orinduik have not been much improved.
Nevertheless, I feel that I know what’s happening – all the Tour Companies and the Guyana Tourism Association (GTA) are waiting to see who will “bell the cat” and construct proper facilities at these two exemplary tourist locations and others in the hinterland.
Come on gentlemen! Put your petty pride and jealousies aside and seek to develop the tourism product in Guyana as a valuable and respected one.
Jim Holder
THIS IDIOT TELLING GUYANA WE HAVE NO SAY IN THE 50% PROFIT SHARING AGREEMENT WE HAVE WITH EXXON.
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