The community of New Forest, East Canje, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) is expected to receive electricity for the first time before Christmas.
Senior Minister in the Office of the President with Responsibility for Finance and the Public Service, Dr Ashni Singh confirmed this on Saturday when he met with residents of villages surrounding New Forest.
The last village in East Canje, which is connected to the national grid is Gangaram. The three populated villages that come after and stretch eight miles from Gangaram to New Forest. Speculation, Zorg, and Good Land, like New Forest, have also never been connected to the national grid.
Addressing residents on Saturday, Singh said it is the government’s principal objective to ensure that the lives of every Guyanese are improved irrespective of where they live.
Back in May, the minister had visited the community and was told that there was no electricity connected to the area. During that meeting, he promised that before the year ends, residents of New Forest will have access to electricity.
Now, over 50 families in the East Canje village are expected to benefit from the intervention. Minister Singh noted on Saturday that the poles had already been planted and the wires connected.
“You have the responsibility to wire your own home. GPL [Guyana Power and Light] will work closely with the residents to make sure that the connections to the homes are made, and the certification and inspections are done so that you can get electricity before Christmas.”
The lines to the community have already been powered.
Head of the Executive Management Committee at GPL, Kesh Nandall, explained that 9 kilometres of medium and low voltage lines were installed.
“There is some work to be done and we have to organize ourselves so that we can process them together. We will give you all the support so that you can get power to your homes. You will have reliable electricity,” the GPL Head said.
Meanwhile, Dr Singh noted that there were three areas in Region Six where residents had never been connected to the grid. These areas are the Upper East Canje area, the East Bank of Berbice (EEB), and sections of Crabwood Creek (CWC).
The four communities in CWC have since been connected to the grid while the poles have been accumulated for the EBB and planting is expected to commence on Wednesday.
“Where there are even more remote communities like in the hinterland where the villages are far away from the grid and it is not feasible to connect them to the grid because of the distance, in some cases, we have been putting mini-grids like in Moca Moca where have built a mini hydro. In some cases, even a mini-grid because of the dispersion of the population – they live far apart and we can’t have a mini-grid, we took a decision that we will deliver household-level solution. Since President Ali assumed office, we have already 30,000 household-level units; this is solar panels, battery storage, a few lamps, and a fan. We have delivered those to hinterland villages and Amerindian villages throughout the length and breadth of the country,” Singh pointed out.
The minister further noted that while it is about the delivery of electricity to New Forest and nearby villages, there is a bigger picture within which it should be viewed.
“It is a commitment that you would have heard our President made repeatedly that our government’s principal objective is to ensure that the lives of every single Guyanese irrespective of where they live, that their lives are improved. In some communities it means the upgrading of community roads because historically in some communities the roads have been non-existent – you have seen the thousands of community roads that we have built, in many communities it means building or expanding a school or a health centre,” Singh said.
He also noted that the electricity demand has been increasing as he referred to the New Forest project as being a small addition to the grid.
“There are new housing areas with hundreds of houses that are being brought onto the grid; we have new industrial and commercial investments including things like hotels, factories, warehouses, processing plants, etc. all of whom are coming onto the grid and demanding electricity. This has resulted in the skyrocketing electricity demand.”
The demand for electricity from GPL has moved from almost 100 megawatts to almost 200 megawatts currently.
“This has resulted in the need for more electricity which we have been bringing as rapidly as can,” he said.
Earlier this year GPL hired a power ship that is currently delivering 36 megawatts of power and a second power ship is expected to arrive before the end of the year. That ship is expected to have the capacity of delivering 60 megawatts of power.
