The electricity supply expansion programme is moving apace with the community of Mahdia being the latest to benefit from it.

Under the Unserved Areas Electricity Programme (UAEP), $150M was invested to provide electricity for some 500 residents of the hinterland community in Region 8. Residents, for the first time, will be receiving power 24 hours a day, and at a cheaper rate.

Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, at the commissioning of the project, said the event was just the beginning of “better days to come” for the district, and that the investment “will help to meet the growing energy demand.”

This project would have cost the government $300,000 for every customer that is connected to the Mahdia Power and Light, the Prime Minister said.

Each customer connected to the grid will receive the first 15 KW of power free of charge every month.

“We expect that everybody will get connected, so that they can enjoy a reliable source of power to their homes, and that there will be no stealing of electricity,” Mr. Hinds said.

This is yet another tangible demonstration of the government’s commitment towards equity and improving the standard of living for all the people of this country.

Unlike other governments which make empty promises, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) government has been consistently fulfilling its promises to the Guyanese people.

Of course, it has not yet fulfilled all the promises it has made but certainly it has delivered on most of them so far and, from all indications, is moving unswervingly towards delivering on those outstanding promises.

Improving and expanding electricity supply was one of the promises made by this government and it has certainly stood steadfastly to it as scores of communities across the country now have electricity for the first time.
In particular, the number of hinterland communities that now benefit from electricity is unprecedented.

This wonderful development is not surprising, because the commitment to electrification started with the pre-colonial PPP-led government of 1961-1964 which took over the financially troubled and privately owned power company,  brought it back to viability and began the rural electrification programme.

It also had a blueprint for the establishment of the Tiger Hill Falls hydro project. Unfortunately, when it was removed from office in 1964, the subsequent government abandoned this project.

Of course, we still have some problems with the efficiency and cost of electricity, but herculean efforts have been made in recent years to deal with this and today we enjoy a far better service than what existed two decades ago.

It must be appreciated that spiralling fuel prices have adversely impacted on the electricity company and had it not been for this challenge, the situation would have been even better than what it is today.

When one considers the atrocious state which the power company found itself in two decades ago, this government has done remarkably well to restore it to a semblance of normalcy.

Gone are the days when blackouts were the norm and electricity supply was the exception. Those were the days when the power company was brought to its knees and a power barge was bought for US$2.8M but never generated one unit of electricity.

Today, while we have not reached the ideal level with respect to electricity supply, we have made tremendous improvement and the road ahead is even more optimistic with the prospects of hydro-electricity and solar energy.

As Prime Minister Hinds said, there are “better days to come”.