ROSE SCENT / Rolled Rose Leaf
‘Te yu mati barba e bron, bigin nati di fu yu’says a well-known proverb. In simple English, this means that you better take precautions when you notice that your friend has gotten into trouble.
Now it doesn’t have to just be a friend. It could also be another acquaintance or a neighbor. And Aunt Jenny better take note that Irfan Ali’s beautiful, full beard is on fire. For quite some time now. And that is due to overheated electricity cables.
“I have not been able to read anywhere when Aunt Jenny wants to complete the legislation and the major investments can actually start”
The media only reports Guyana’s enormous economic growth, but behind those figures a lot is going wrong. And with electricity it’s a complete mess. Now, looking at Aunt Jenny’s jaw, I don’t get the impression that she needs to wax because of beard growth, but she could rather behave as such and thoroughly wet her figurative beard.
In a press release from the Communications Service Suriname we read that the electricity shortage in Suriname is now 80 megawatts and could even increase to 140 megawatts in 2030. That is why our head of state wants accelerate investments in solar energy. International companies have submitted plans that together amount to the generation of 200 megawatts through solar power plants.
According to the report, the lack of legislation is hindering these investments. These matters were discussed during a conference on Friday where the energy situation was discussed. Aunt Jenny wants to see a reduction in demand as early as next year by giving companies and people who have the money and who buy and install their own panels the opportunity to do so.
I have not been able to read anywhere when Aunt Jenny wants to complete the legislation and the major investments can actually start. Small interventions on the roofs of families and companies will not prove to be sufficient.
In Guyana they also thought that things would not go this well. Even though they had been loadshedding for years. Anyone who knows Guyana knows. Ultimately, they were unable to avoid hiring a Turkish energy ship faster than they could ever have imagined from their neighbors due to energy demand. A floating power plant. That one quickly became a second and the Turks charged them cutthroat rates. And now a third energy boat is even being considered.
In the meantime, a rush is being made on another money-consuming project, namely the ‘Gas to Energy Project’, in which electricity will be generated from gas from oil extraction. The project has been lagging behind for more than a year and critics believe that its foundation is also not good. The contractor would also not have a fresh past.
They hope, with great hope, that sometime in the middle of next year the project will be completed and the loadshedding, which was a normal thing even before the oil discoveries there and has been ongoing until now, will finally be over.
In the meantime, the important people here have estimated that our deficit could increase to 140 megawatts by 2030, as reported by the communications service. But in the meantime, a lot of construction is going on and accommodations for expats are being built, all with air conditioning and hot water boilers and other energy-consuming appliances.
Praying for rain is pointless because the ‘Supreme Being’ has already sent us a Super El Niño and that means continued drought. That is why I do not expect that we will really be out of trouble by the end of November, when NH Minister David Abiamofo says loadshedding must stop. We will have to make do until the major investments come. More than haste is required. The neighbors know it: before you know it you’ll be switching from loadshedding loadshitting!
