Blackouts are hurting everyone, except the very rich who have their own power generation. But according to President Irfaan Ali, the situation will get worse.
At a press conference on Monday, the President highlighted the dire situation on the Essequibo Coast. He said that all the generating sets are just enough to satisfy peak demand.
He said that some of the generators have passed their due maintenance date. However, none can be taken out for maintenance because the system on Essequibo Coast will collapse.
The situation is equally dire along coastal Guyana. Many generators have collapsed. The system is almost wholly reliant on the rented power ships. The cost of renting these ships is astronomical.
The total rental and operational cost for the two power ships rented by Guyana exceeds US$200 million over a two-year period, with daily rental fees alone totaling roughly G$48.8 million (US$235,000).
In addition to the charter cost, providing Heavy Fuel Oil (HFO) and operational logistics adds tens of millions of dollars, with fuel estimates running upwards of US$246 million and daily operational/fuel expenditures reaching roughly G$126 million per day.
This has been the case for more than two years. Guyana has been renting the power ships for those two years because the gas to energy project failed to come on stream as scheduled.
At the same time billions of dollars are being spent on the very gas to energy project. This project is almost $400 billion over the original cost.
Add this cost to the cost of renting the power ships and one can get the magnitude of the sums being spent in the electricity sector. And Guyana owns nothing to mitigate the situation.
The opposition has been contending that the government is incompetent. These figures tend to support that contention.
One can only wonder what life would have been if that money had gone into the local labour sector. Public sector employees would have been so much better off. At the same time the treasury would have been boosted by way of taxes and other revenue collected.
The ordinary man is at the mercy of the state and the elements. El Nino is visiting with all its vengeance. The temperatures reach astronomical heights. Blackouts do not help the situation. The suffering is worse.
President Ali says that the situation could have been much worse had the government not been cushioning—he said subsidizing the fuel costs—incurred by the power company. The reality is that the nation can expect more blackouts. The situation will get worse.
Blackouts mean reduced production but according to the half-yearly report Guyana recorded better than average growth. This could be because the major producers have their independent generation capacity.
Given the high fuel cost blamed on the war between the United States and Iran, the cost of production would increase. When that happens, the goods cost more so the cost of living rises. The people are in a vicious circle.
The half-yearly report shows that inflation has risen to great heights.
A lot of money has passed through the hands of the government. It drew down heavily from the Natural Resources Fund to the extent that a pittance is left for future generations. Yet things are bad.
There is talk about a growing economy and more jobs. If the truth be told the jobs aren’t going to Guyanese. A horde of Spanish-speaking people assembled outside the Ministry of Health, recently. They were reportedly seeking electronic identification cards.
The image was disheartening for the average Guyanese. They were being sidelined.
But a people get the government they deserve. Many of them stayed home during the last elections. In fact, the turnout was the lowest in the history of elections in the country.
Other worrying developments in the country are the number of road fatalities. Scarcely a day passes without someone being killed on the roads. A fourteen-year-old motorcyclist killed a 10-year-old girl returning from church.
He was not entitled to have a licence but there he was riding on the roads. People probably saw him but did nothing. In the wake of the accident, he was able to leave the scene. It was some time later that he was taken to the police by his parents.
The police did not try to arrest him soon after the incident. They knew who he was.
Then there was another teenager on the Corentyne who went for a joy ride towing a 14-year-old. He rode into a horse. His 14-year-old pillion rider died.
Nearly every young rider believes that he is a racer. He goes tearing down the road at breakneck speed. He weaves in and out of traffic, not realizing that he cannot save himself in the event of an emergency.
Motorcyclists are a menace on the roads. The police see them but rarely do anything. There was a time in the not too distant past when the police would conduct a campaign. They would patrol the streets with a truck.
Motorcyclists were stopped. Many simply ran away because they did not have a licence or because the motorcycles were stolen. The police simply loaded the bikes onto the truck. The compounds of police stations were full of these bikes.
At least the roads were safe for a while. Drivers did not have to keep looking into the side mirror to ensure that no motorcyclist was undertaking.
Similarly, unlicensed Chinese nationals are driving large rucks on the roads. They too are killing people. It could be because many contracts have been awarded to Chinese companies. These companies, either because of language or culture, prefer their own.
And the police are unable to stop the carnage. When it suits them, they intervene as is the case of the Minister’s son who killed a woman on the roads.
Paul Slowe talks about this quite often. The Director of Public Prosecutions recommended charges; the police commissioner sent for the file and that was the end of the matter.
