THE current state of the Amaila Falls Hydropower project has much to do with what the parliament and political opposition has done to the project, but the administration is “resolute” in bringing about hydropower in Guyana. 

Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon said so Wednesday, during his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President in Georgetown.
“The parliamentary opposition and what transpired in parliament is what has brought us to this state we are in with both the road and the project itself. If this process had been dealt with the way we expected;if they had performed in a credible, suitable fashion, these whole questions about delays would not be on the table,” Luncheon told reporters.
Meanwhile, government recently took the opportunity presented by the Opposition to stress its call for cheaper energy through the advancement of the Amaila Falls Hydropower project.
A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) Member of Parliament Keith Scott had questioned the 2014 budgetary allocation for the Guyana Power and Light Company (GPL), given the shortcomings in reliable and efficient delivery of energy to the Guyanese people.
Government Chief Whip Gail Teixeira, in heckling the MP, said, “Now you see the light,” as she called for the Opposition’s support for the hydropower project.
In 2013, Government had hoped to have been well underway towards realising the Amaila Falls hydropower project, through which Guyana would have become self-sufficient in electricity generation.
However, funding for the project was slashed by the Opposition in last year’s budget. But Government has since strengthened its commitment to deliver hydropower to the Guyanese people.
Slated to be the nation’s most ambitious undertaking, the project is touted to be able to provide Guyanese with cheaper, reliable and sustainable power supply. The project involves the construction of a hydropower plant in the area of west-central Guyana, where the Amaila and Kuribrong rivers meet.
Electricity produced at the plant will be delivered to Guyana’s capital, Georgetown, and its second largest town, Linden. The project is expected to result in substantial savings to the nation’s coffers, particularly in terms of foreign exchange and the purchase of heavy fuel oil.
Furthermore, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), establishing a Guyana-Brazil Joint Technical Group has been concluded, which mandated the group to identify concrete actions and timelines for the construction of a hydroelectric plant in the Mazaruni and the transmission lines necessary to export electricity to Brazil and further afield.

(By Telesha Ramnarine)