Prime Minister Samuel Hinds speaking at the national stakeholder workshop on rural electrification.

Under the hinterland component of the Un-served Areas Electrification Programme (UAEP), electricity has been provided to four Amerindian villages: Yarakita in Region One, Kurukabaru in Region Nine, Capoey in Region Two and Muritaro in Region Ten.

At present studies are proceeding to provide electricity in other villages on a pilot basis.

Renewable energy systems are costly; but in the hinterland areas where the provision of electricity under a grid system is often impossible because of isolated houses, renewable energy may be the only alternative.

Photovoltaic solar home systems are seen as an attractive investment which may be costly but less expensive than any other system of supplying electricity in hinterland areas.

During a national stakeholder workshop on rural electrification, Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, the Minister responsible for the electricity sector, said renewable energy sources and systems are being redeveloped with the recognition of the dangerous consequences of burning fossil fuel to the global atmosphere.

Through a Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded project supported by the Latin American Energy Organisation (OLADE), the University of Calgary/Haskayne School of Business and the Guyana Energy Agency (GEA), a pilot project which started in Wowetta, Region Nine in July 2007, under the rural electrification programme, has today equipped the community with solar power lighting, a community shop, a water pump, and a joinery shop.

Through the project, about 49 homes were provided with solar panel lighting, deep cycle battery, charge controller and solar powered freezers. A community shop with freezer for ice making, cooling beverages and storing meat was established and a solar panel with a water pump and a cassava chopper/grinder to promote commercial quantities of farine for sale to other communities were also accomplished.

Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai, who was also part of the workshop, said the Wowetta project is one that incorporated the contribution of the beneficiaries.

“The villages are very integral to the success of the project and it not a one-sided approach. This will help not only Wowetta as they become more successful in sustaining and consolidating this project, but the success, which I hope will come later and which I hope the community will generate as they become successful, is the fact that communities can be the key driver whereby they do not look forward always for totally subsidised support,” Minister Sukhai said.

The Amerindian Affairs Minister expressed hope that the approach taken to place the managerial responsibility of the project in the hands of the community will serve as a lesson for the community to operate in a more structured way.

Moreover, she expressed hope that the provision of utility services will aid in the improvement of livelihood options and economies of the communities. (GINA)