Comrades:

Well, this is another case of fiscal irresponsibility on the part of the APRV government in The Gambia.  Please read the following from The Independent:

Nawec Generators Without Fuel?

As 72- hour electricity shortage hits the Greater Banjul Area, a reliable source, closed to NAWEC’s Kotu Power Station, has revealed that an acute shortage of fuel (gas oil) is the cause of such a situation.

The source, who spoke to The Point last Monday evening, noted that contrary to people’s speculation about a major breakdown due to a technical problem, the load sheeding is due to a shortage of fuel. “We have no technical problem, our fuel supply is completely exhausted and there is nothing one can do other than shutting off certain areas mainly residential ones and supplying places like hospitals and other institutions which cannot work without electricity” the source said.

In an effort to gather a confirmation, this reporter visited NAWEC’s Fajara office twice and spent almost two hours trying to speak to the managing director but to no avail. This reporter later spoke to the Human Resource Manager Sirah Njie. According to Mrs. Njie, the outage was due to a technical problem but the matter has been resolved. When asked to react to the claim that it was instead due to fuel shortage, she responded in a rather hostile tone: “If you misquote me, I’m going to sue you to court, this is not the first time The Point has been doing this. All I can tell you is that it is a technical problem, a technical problem, if you want anymore details you have to talk to the managing director and he is in a rush to Banjul”.

This reporter made it clear that he was not impressed by the threat to take him to court for doing his job. It can be recalled that President Yahya Jammeh about a year ago brought the energy sector under his care for what many people attributed to NAWEC’s failure to provide regular water and electricity supply to The Gambian people.

In a bid to solve this problem, two generators were purchased and commissioned. Many soccer fans are now affected by the power shortage claiming that it came at a very bad moment as the tournament is getting more and more exciting. For commercial video clubs the situation instead favours them as they are now registering full houses.

Naphiyo,

Comrade ML Jassey-Conteh

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface
at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
To contact the List Management, please send an e-mail to:
[log in to unmask]

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~