The Minister of Information, Communication and Infrastructure has lamented that the current electricity outages in the country is ‘a phenomenon experienced by all Gambians.’
Honorable DA Jawo holding his usual monthly press briefing Wednesday at the Ministry said in the last few weeks and days, power outages have become more frequent than ever that makes the situation deserves some explanation. This he said “the frequent outages that we are experiencing is a phenomenon that every Gambian is facing daily.”
On consultation with other Minister together with the Management of NAWEC for an explanation, causes and when Gambians can expect and enjoy stable and reliable power supply, he said he was made to understand that the frequent power outages are being caused by ongoing maintenance on some of the generators. He added “this is resulting in extensive load-shedding due to inadequate power supply to meet the demand.”
More so, he continued, the crux of the problem is that Nawec has been working with aged and obsolete equipment, some of which are almost 30 years old.
According to him “The Gambia acquired some of these second-hand generators as decommissioned equipment from other parts of the world three decades ago.”
He gave a breakdown of the generators saying out of four generators in operation at the Kotu Power Station, only three are now operational, the remaining one he said is faulty and is currently shut down for maintenance due to mechanical fault.
At the Brikama Power Station, he explained that out of six generators there only four are operational. This is because of their scheduled maintenance periods though one of the two non-functioning generators is expected to be back in operation as soon as possible.
The Minister, prior to the questions and answers session of the briefing, touched other area of developments in the country during the past month.
Among the new developments are the Kuntaur flood assistance effort to the people of the entire area as the Vice President was accompanied by a high-powered delegation to the area, the Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission; the inauguration of the Security Sector Reform Project; Janneh Commission currently investigating the financial activities of former President Yahya Jammeh; Diplomatic Induction and on President Barrow and some other members of the government’s pilgrimage to perform Hajj.
On his part, the Minister of Information, Communication and Infrastructure spoke about his recent visit to Freetown as special envoy of President Barrow to commiserate with the government of the Sierra Leone, following the deadly mudslides that claimed over 1000 lives in the month of August.
He also touched on President Adama Barrow’s address at the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York and the signing of five new treaties – Abolition of the Death Penalty as part of the Second Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights; International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers, and Members of their families; International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance; United Nations Convention on Transparency in Treaty-Based Investor-State Arbitration and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.
