Happy Diwali!

Oct 17, 2009 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Darkness and light make a stunning contrast. Last night, just before proceeding to the Diwali Parade, I passed through sections of the city and found quite a few buildings aglow in light, while many other buildings were clouded in a pall of darkness due to load shedding.
With many more buildings being illuminated tomorrow night, it is going to place a great strain on electricity demand thus plunging larger swathes of the county into darkness, a quite regrettable situation considering that it will deny many families the opportunity to be part of the traditional after dusk lighting up which characterizes Diwali observances in Guyana.
While the Prime Minister has indicated in the National Assembly that the situation should stabilize after November 5, there is always that apprehension that perhaps we should not be too optimistic and raise our hopes because as things have shown time and time again in Guyana, sometimes when we expect things to get better they do not.
All of these problems ought never to have happened.  It is quite amusing to have learnt that the heat wave is responsible for a significant portion of the increase in electricity demand. Surely the authorities do not expect us to believe that an increase in the use of fans in homes can cause demand to so outstrip supply that large sections of the country have to day in day out be without power.
This is highly distressing. Production is affected; businesses cannot meet their deadlines because of the lack of electricity, children cannot do their homework; food is spoiling because of the lack of refrigeration. This entire mess is disrupting the lives of all of us and someone needs to come forward and take responsibility.
It is not sufficient to diagnose that the problem is the increase in the use of room cooling devices, and the increase in new housing schemes throughout the country. These schemes did not prop up overnight.
The electrification of these schemes were catered for years and thus if there was proper planning taking place, the authorities would have known how to schedule increased generation to cater for the growing demand. As things presently stand, a situation has developed that makes a mockery of the great strides that the PPP has unquestionably made in the electricity sector.
There is no doubt that the PPP has improved the electricity sector. This can be gauged by the fact that power consumption is more than four times what obtained during the PNC regime, which had great difficulty in providing 16 MW of electricity.
This improved record of providing a more reliable supply and greater access to electricity, should however not be used as an excuse for what is presently taking place. There needs to be an assessment as to just what is the cause of the present blackouts that are plaguing the country, who should be held responsible and what steps needs to be taken to bring about an improvement not just over the short term but also in the long run.
What we do not, however, want is any Superman coming to the rescue. We do not wish to hear of any emergency generating plants being imported.
What we need is an approach aimed to achieving a stabilized and reliable supply of electricity, which takes account of existing and future peak demand.
It is disappointing to learn that the President is concerned about the situation. Instead of being upset, the President should be commissioning an assessment so that he can understand just what is going wrong. The government that he heads needs to account for why there is a shortage and instead of trying to find answers, including whether the present crisis represents a problem with national planning and if it does just where does the buck stop.
The difficulties that the government has with sustaining progress are not confined to the electricity sector. We are already witnessing firecrackers exploding all over the country.  A few years ago, the authorities had calmed down on the sale of these firecrackers but it seems as if the authorities have let their guards down and that massive numbers of firecrackers have been smuggled into the country.
But what is more worrying is the abandon with which these firecrackers are being exploding across the country. There seems no fear of police prosecution and this is something that is worrying since it is hard to imagine that the police themselves whether in their homes, on the road or at work are not aware that squibs are being extensively sold throughout the country.
Today the police should be arresting and charging person found with firecrackers.
If there are two things which would make this year’s Diwali observances memorable, it would be for there to be noise- free observances, and of course for those who have electricity to consider greater economy of use mindful that while persons must have the right to mark their religious holydays with great festivity, they must also be charitable towards others.
And the best way to do this in a time when many are without lights for an extended period would be to be frugal in electricity consumption, until the situation stabilizes.

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