Resuscitation of Amaila Falls Project an election gimmick - Harmon

Resuscitation of Amaila Falls Project an election gimmick – Harmon

Oct 27, 2014 News

By Latoya Giles

While President Donald Ramotar has said that the Amaila Falls Hydro Project can be operational by 2019, Opposition Member for the APNU, Joseph Harmon has dismissed the statement as an “election gimmick”.
The President on Friday told reporters that he is still continuing to push forward in his bid to restart the Amaila Falls Hydro Project.
Harmon, who spoke to Kaieteur News, said that the statement made by the president is part of the party’s gimmicks. He said that while the administration continues to talk about a “green economy” it’s blatant that they don’t care. “It’s no green economy…it’s a greed economy, they allowed the destruction of the forest, they allowed the exportation of logs…they don’t care anything” Harmon told Kaieteur News.
The Opposition Member said further that his party would continue to stress that the project is “seriously flawed”. He said that his party is yet to see an Environmental Report, and has not been updated on any plans of resuscitating this project.
On Friday, the President told reporters that the remaining US$80 million received from Norway could have been invested in the flagship of the Low Carbon Development Strategy the Amaila Falls Hydro Project.
The Norwegian Government has committed to providing Guyana with up to US$250M by 2015 for avoided deforestation, once certain performance indicators are met.

Opposition Member
for the APNU, Joseph Harmon

According to the President, had the Amaila Falls Project been on track, it would have attracted more than US$800 million in further financing from foreign direct investment. The Head of State said that this plan didn’t materialize since there was a significant setback last year when self-serving political games attempted to destroy the project that was about to benefit all Guyanese by providing them with affordable, reliable, clean energy.
“The attempt to cause the collapse of the Amaila Falls Hydro Project in August 2013 was a disgraceful episode in our nation’s development, when some commentators and politicians refused to let evidence be their guide,” Ramotar told reporters.
He said that the nation saw “untruthful statements” from people who had access to all the relevant information which proved their own statements wrong.
He said that their partners at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the government of Norway also remained steadfast in their resolve. The President added that he sees some form of progress.
Last August, when Sithe Global announced that it had pulled out of the project, its President, Brian Kubeck, maintained that “a public-private partnership of this magnitude requires a national consensus in order for us to proceed further.”
Kubeck was referring to the fact that the political opposition was divided on the pieces of legislation it had to consider in relation to the venture.
Government’s point man on the project, Winston Brassington, last January, met with the Parliamentary Sectoral Committee on Natural Resources and had disclosed that Government had started looking at a number of options after Sithe Global’s pullout, recognizing that the parties involved had spent considerable time and monies in developing it.
The contractor, China Railway First Group, remains “keenly committed” to the project. So does China Development Bank, Brassington had stated.
Brassington made it clear that China is willing to step in and “fill the gap” with regards to financing.
Under the financing structure, in the original arrangement, Sithe Global would have been putting in US$152M; IDB US$175M, Guyana US$100M and CDB US$413M.
China Railway had already signed an Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) agreement with Sithe for US$506M.
Some 70 per cent of the total funding would have been coming from the CDB and the IDB. Brassington at the time stressed that talks are still ongoing with the partners with any negotiations still at a preliminary stage.

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