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Last year Prime Minister Mark Phillips, who has responsibility for electricity, promised Guyanese the government will work to prevent frequent blackouts. This was promised at Christmas. The promise was again made in March but in May Guyanese have come to resign themselves that frequent blackouts have returned. The promise of buying electricity from private suppliers to feed the national grid and reduce blackouts has become just that, an empty promise.
In October 2020, a Department of Public Information release reported the Prime Minister saying the government wants “to buy power that is available locally to supplement what is produced by GPL. That, in the shortest term, will help us to have reserve power to minimise blackouts.” Nothing much has changed. In the meantime, Guyanese continue to accept that they have to minimise purchase of perishable or seek to find ways to protect their electrical appliances from being destroyed with the frequent blackouts.
At night rather than go to sleep knowing there is power Guyanese have to pray for power or accept that they have to set up in their homes and watch their surroundings for fear of thieves capitalising on the dark, attacking them and stealing their hard-earned possessions. Living a life like this in the 21st century is going backwards not forward. The government needs to come up with a credible and viable plan to stop the blackouts.
Guyanese are tired of the situation. They are tired of having to live where they cannot plan, are not sleeping safe or are in constant fear of their appliances being destroyed by power outages. It is a vexing situation because even when there are deals in the market on greens and other perishable food items there is hesitancy to catch the bargain for fear that they would spoil before being used up. People have had enough.
