THE Region 10 community of Kwakwani will receive a big boost in electricity supply with the setting up of a solar farm, later in the year.

In fact, at a community meeting held at the Christianburg Community Centre Ground on Tuesday evening in Linden, Minister of Public Infrastructure (MoPI), David Patterson, related to residents, that the contract to build the photovoltaic farm has already been advertised and funding for the project will be sourced from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). Community officials are presently looking for a suitable site for the farm to be placed so that every household can be effectively served.

A decision to go solar in Kwakwani comes as a result of the community enduring up to 12 hours of power outage daily. The Kwakwani Utility Incorporated (KUI) is unable to provide 24 hours of electricity for the entire community and is currently providing electricity on a rotation schedule.

In an invited comment, Member of Parliament, Audwin Rutherford, who has responsibility for Kwakwani, said that he is excited that the community is going ‘green’ and the residents will have some relief. He related that one of the biggest challenges in Kwakwani was the sourcing and availability of fuel and with solar energy, this will definitely cut cost for the government, since electricity in Kwakwani is subsidised and residents do not pay for it. With this new system, the MP said subsidising should continue but if a payment system will be enacted, it will be on par with the cost of electricity in Linden.

This is not the first time the MoPI will be investing millions into improving the electricity supply at Kwakwani; however, the latest attempt, did not meet the desired expectations. In March 2018, the government purchased two new 260 kilowatt engines for KUI, however, those two sets have not solved the problems.