BARTICA is faced with a spate of power outages with no explanation given by the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), residents said on Saturday as they complained bitterly. Holbert Knights, who resides at Potaro Road, told the Guyana Chronicle that residents have been experiencing blackouts every day for the past seven days. “When everything is going smoothly, we would have blackout once a week for couple hours but for the past week we have been getting eight to 10 hours of blackout per day.”
He said apparently GPL has a load-shedding schedule in place, explaining that while one section of Bartica may be powered, another would be out of electricity. “So if you have electricity during the day, at nights you would have at least eight hours of blackout.”
Knights, who operates a Western Union and Bill Express outlet at Second Avenue, Bartica, said businesses are being affected significantly.
“When you talk about fuel to run a gen set, and that too has its issues because you cannot depend on a generator for 100% of electricity. It is also a costly exercise when you don’t have GPL.”
Another resident, Ignatius Prowell, told this newspaper that after spending six weeks out of the country he was greeted by blackouts upon his return to Bartica, much to his dissatisfaction.
He recalled that last year Bartica had experienced a series of power outages, saying that while he understands that the power station may experience difficulties from time to time, nothing has been said to residents by the authorities.
“We would have expected that something would have been said by GPL or the administration, but nobody seems to know nothing.” Based on information he received through the “grapevine,” Prowell said he was told that the engine at the power station had encountered difficulties over the last week.
“The only time we would have gotten a response is when we would have protested last year, and so I am wondering with a change in the administration if we would have to go down that road again.”
Kamal Persaud, a social activist within the community, said residents are “tired and fed-up” of the situation. “Every night there is blackout, the children can’t sleep, they can’t study, and so we are having sleepless nights because it is a very uncomfortable situation.” She too complained that it is a very costly exercise to maintain a generator in the absence of electricity from GPL.
Last year, GPL had apologised to the residents of Bartica after they had experienced a series of power outages after the Numbers Eight and Nine Caterpillar generating sets had experienced technical difficulties.
Attempts to contact GPL Public Relations Officer (PRO) Shevon Sears-Murray on Saturday, proved futile.