By Arret Jatta
Facing mounting pressure and public outcry over one of the most acute power outages in the country’s recent history, the National Water and Electricity Company, Nawec yesterday used the government press conference to explain that the crisis is due to ongoing maintenance challenges and equipment rehabilitation, and assured Gambians that the situation is expected to improve within the next two weeks.
For nearly two weeks now, many parts of the country have, and continue to experience prolonged power cuts, with some communities reportedly going more than 24 hours without electricity.
In some areas, power returns only briefly before another outage occurs, affecting households, businesses and essential services.
Nawec’s Chief Operating Officer for Electricity, Pateh Sowe, said the utility company currently has a generation capacity of about 104 megawatts, which he said is sufficient to meet the country’s electricity demand but maintaining power generation equipment remains a major challenge because spare parts have to be imported from abroad.
“Some of these spare parts take six or seven months to arrive because they have to be manufactured before shipment,” Sowe said.
He disclosed that Kotu Power Station has an installed capacity of 31.7 megawatts, but only two engines are currently operational while two others are undergoing rehabilitation.
Sowe noted that significant investments from the government, the World Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and the African Development Bank have helped restore several power generation units that were previously non-functional.
He added that the frequency of blackouts has significantly reduced compared to previous years, saying outages before 2017 could reach nearly 100 incidents per month, while current records show an average of between two and six blackouts monthly.
“We expect within the next two weeks we will be able to normalise the situation,” he assured
Also speaking at the press conference Information Minister, Ismaila Ceesay, expressed optimism about the country’s energy future.
Debt claims
Meanwhile Deputy Managing Director Momodou Lamin Sompo Ceesay has dismissed claims that the outages were caused by unpaid debts to Senegal, claiming The Gambia owes Senegal ‘only a few million dollars’ in electricity supplies and electricity imports from neighbouring countries too are paid monthly and are backed by bank guarantees.
“There is no financial issue here. This is not a Senegal issue or a Guinea issue,” he said, adding that regional electricity supply fluctuations are largely linked to maintenance schedules and the availability of renewable energy within the regional power pool.
