A LOCAL engineering company, which refuses to identify itself because of an impending name change, is seeking to resuscitate the hydroelectric plant at Tumatumari in Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni). The entrepreneur’s plan is to reactivate the system that has been out of commission for the past 20 years, to provide electricity as a wider investment for an industrial area on the banks of the Potaro River, said an official concerned with the project.
“We will be making some related announcements at the right time,” he offered, disclosing that work at the site has been ongoing for about a month now.
He said the equipment there, with the exception of the two huge turbines, have been extensively vandalised.
“We are, at the moment doing a preliminary investigation, a proof test of these turbines. We are also cleaning up and hoping to have a full rehabilitation later this year,”  he said.
The Official said they are making progress and would be ready to release more details in the near future.
The hydro scheme at Tumatumari was put into operation by British Guiana Consolidated Goldfields Limited to power two large dredges for gold mining there and Konawaruk in the 1950s.
Following a prolonged workers strike, the operations were closed about early 1960s but put back into use in 1976 by Guyana National Service (GNS) for supplying current to its administrative centre and other activities.
The Tumatumari hydro stopped functioning in the early 1980s.