CHIEF Executive officer (CEO) of the Central Housing and Planning Authority (CHPA), Leon Saul, has announced that 16 government-led housing schemes and communities across Guyana are slated to receive electricity through CHPA’s $471 million Electrification Project.
The schemes targeted under this programme are: Onderneeming, Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); Zeelugt and Lust-en-Rust in Region Three (West Demerara-Essequibo Islands); Hope/ Experiment and Baltyrock in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); Kilcoy Chesney in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); Bartica, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni); and Peter’s Hall, Farm, Covent Garden, Diamond, Eccles, Barnwell, Paradise and Enmore in Region Four (Demerara- Mahaica )
Encompassed in these 16 housing schemes are some 38,000 housing units in addition to the industrial areas. All of the persons residing in these areas have been without electricity for a period of about three to five years.
“We expect the project to be closed out by the beginning of December,” Saul said at a press briefing on Tuesday. “It is not our desire for people to be left out in the dark.”
The 2017 Electrification Programme is organised into three sub-components, according to Saul. The first component involves the procurement of the requisite electrical hardware materials, of which 30 percent of the mobilisation payments have been made.
The line hardware, sourced from China, is expected to arrive by the end of October while the transformers and conductors are expected to arrive by the end of September.
The second component entails the procurement of the wallaba poles, but the CEO related that the supply of the poles has been delayed by six weeks, since Cabinet only approved it on July7, even though the evaluation report was submitted since April, 2017. The poles should be delivered and planted by the end of September as well.
The third component involves the hiring of electrical contractors for the installation of the electrical system. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the CHPA and the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) to only contract pre-qualified electrical contractors that abide by GPL’s standards. “It is projected that all works would be signed and ready for schedule in time for October 2017- month end,” Saul said.
After the completion of the electrification works, GPL will then assume responsibility for supplying and managing the electricity in the areas.
In September 2016, Minister within the Ministry of Communities, Valerie Patterson had earmarked a sum of $900 million to foster the electrification of housing areas in 2017. This was in response to the complaints of the unavailability of electricity and other infrastructure in some of these areas.
The CEO related at the briefing that the aim of the CHPA is to create communities, moreover communities that are equipped with the basic living requirements like electricity. In establishing communities, the authority is mandated to ensure that the requirements like electricity, roadways and the supply of water are provided.
