Kwakwani plagued by constant power outages and water shortage

Mar 23, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

Please permit me to simply start by saying the Hon. Minister of Infrastructure was in Kwakwani last year around June – July month to commission two small ‘Doosan’ generators at the power plant where he said to Kwakwani residence that they will now received 24 /7 electricity and water. However, a few days after those generators were commissioned, we started to experience power outages until December 2018. The Hon. Minister of Infrastructure came to Kwakwani and held a meeting at the workers club where he said to residents again that the power company, which is Kwakwani Utilities Inc. [KUI], is in a hole which means that they don’t have money to buy fuel and that the company was in debt. He also said to the residents that due to that we will have to get load shedding for one hour. From last year to now, this community on a daily basis has been getting power outages for more than 10 hours and when the power does come on, there is serious low voltage causing residents’ appliances to be damaged. Our meat and other food items have been spoiling and we have not been getting water for more than four days.
Our teachers and students are suffering on a daily basis in Kwakwani because there is no water to bathe, drink, cook or to even flush our toilets. Since 2017, the new general manager Fitz Hubert McPherson took over this company, KUI. This community is suffering a lot from the lack of electricity and water. One resident asked an official, ‘When are we going to get water?’ And the reply was he was going to “piss” in the tank. That is the kind of treatment this community is faced with.
Reports suggest that government funds budgeted to run the company was instead used to host old age pensioners and children’s parties and fuel has been going missing from the power plant. There have also been reports of employees stealing the starter from the engine and transformer has gone missing from the power plant. Also employees are being threatened with dismissal thus they are working under fear. In December of 2018, approximately 10 employees were dismissed without reason and new persons were hired.
Our main concern here in Kwakwani; however is ‘why must our children suffer?’ Without electricity, our children cannot study many nights.
We are concerned too about political appointees with no qualification for holding certain positions. We are now calling on his Excellency President David Granger to look into this matter as urgent as possible as we are suffering and we need an investigation to be launched into our concerns.

Concerned Kwakwani Resident

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