SEVERAL stalls at Section Three of the Stabroek ‘Big’ Market have been reconnected to the electricity grid after being without their power supply for two days.

On Wednesday morning, several merchants plying their trade at middle section of the market showed up to their stalls and found that they were without electricity. These merchants waited some time and after seeing that the power has not returned, decided to call the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) company. “I made a complaint on [Wednesday] and GPL said they send out people already, so I was waiting,” said one grocery vendor who wished to remain anonymous. “This happens every once in a while but business does really be affected,” he highlighted.

Another vendor, identified only as Manoj said: “It came on afternoon at around [four o’clock] on Thursday but then it cut off back after that.”
While he was thankful that the electricity came on back the following day, he bemoaned that he had to ‘close shop’ for the two days.

“We don’t get it too often… actually for the longest while we ain’t get it, but business does really be affected cause we don’t get to see nothing and we can’t invest in light so,” Manoj stressed.
It was indicated to this newspaper that vendors and shop owners are paying a monthly fee for power. Additionally, one vendor related that electricians attached to the city constabulary would usually be the ones who would mitigate such situations.

Another news outlet reported that on Thursday, electricians identified that there was an issue with the transformer that powers the section. Furthermore, that transformer “sparked” which incited some amount of fear among the vendors. A clothes vendor, Singh, said: “[The outage and spark] affected business very badly because you can’t see the goods them inside the stand and then we close up.”

He complained that while mishaps do occur, this is a commercial area and persons’ livelihoods were being affected. “It doesn’t happen a lot but the point is, when it happens they taking too long to respond,” Singh said. Efforts to contact the Georgetown City Council, through its Public Relations Office to ascertain what caused the problem and what was being done to remedy the situation proved futile.