– another scourge that plagues society

THE Guyana Power and Light Inc.(GPL) has officially declared that the young lad Justin Regis, the eight-year-old boy from Sophia, who died by electrocution in the very latter part of 2013, met his demise via the means of an illegal electrical wiring connection.Not surprising, since such tragic endings though intermittent, have tolled a number of deaths, in many parts of the coastland. But in Sophia, there has been a prevalence of such tragedies, for most of the past two decades that has made the community synonymous with electricity theft. Of course, sometime ago, the Chief Executive Officer of the national power entity was quick to emphasise that this locale was not the only one, where this grave and dangerous practice had been taking place, and he went on to disclose that this illegality of depriving the State of revenue, for a very important utility service, was also present among some sections of the business community.
But little Justin is dead, a loss to his parents and other siblings, and brings into focus a problem that is as chronic as the garbage-strewn capital city.
Absolutely, the practice of electricity theft is widespread, a major headache for the power company, and without doubt a heavy toll on its revenue, as it continues to find ways and means to curtail this unlawful activity. Ever so often, there are media accounts of the institution’s technical personnel on exercises, removing illegal connections from communities, around the city and along the coastland, as exemplified by the pictorial prints of vast amounts of wiring removed from homes, etc.
Such huge amounts of wiring are indicative of the vastness of a problem that impacts on GPL’s programme of improving the nation’s energy supply. Moreover, it also means that a significant number of persons are deliberately refusing to honour their civic duty, of not paying for a service that they continue to use on a daily basis, at the expense of other hard-working citizens.
Let us be objective in saying that a hallmark of modern living these days are the many bills that confront us for the many new and improved services that we are now privileged to have and enjoy.
We ought not to complain, since, such inevitably comes with the improved quality of life that is experienced generally. For this is what socio-economic progress is all about, and since those utility services of water, electricity, the telephone and the internet are all pivotal to our daily comfort, we must bear in mind that they are services that are provided at a cost, which we are duty bound to honour.
That this particular aspect is reiterated, is because there are many of our citizens who still believe that electricity, so expensive a service to generate because of the astronomical cost of fuel and its other inputs, as a service must be dispensed free of charge. In fact, for this category of citizens, their motto is to access utilities, particularly electricity, by illegal means. One can even hear their loud boasts as to how they achieve their nefarious ends!
It is because of such citizens that an illegality of such a nature as electricity theft exists in the astronomically large numbers that it does, posing a clear and present danger to life and limb, and has accounted for the many deaths, such as Justin Regis’s, who was an innocent and unsuspecting victim of this latest travesty.
Citizens, in whatever community, must bear in mind that refusing to pay for electricity leads to the dangerous decision to steal electricity. Such action, as is so well established, leads to innocent deaths, for which they are ALL guilty!