Prime Minister Sam Hinds is to visit Linden today to see first-hand the government's relief efforts as distressed residents continue to receive very limited water and electricity supplies.
The government says Linden should receive improved power and water supplies before the weekend but this will depend on how quickly components sourced for the Linden Power Company (LPC) can be installed.
In the meantime the situation in the town remains dire. Shortly after a revised load shedding schedule was circulated to residents on Tuesday afternoon, the town was once again plunged into total darkness. Some residents at Wismar have resorted to trekking miles to creeks and springs for water since the town's wells also have no power supply.
And the protest which started last Thursday continues. Yesterday when negotiations between the management of Omai Gold Mines Limited and the protestors fell through, the residents proceeded to intensify their efforts to block the gold mining company from transporting fuel and workers into and out of the mine site.
When Stabroek News visited the area on Tuesday evening the protestors had built a camp on the road and had dug two deep trenches in the roadway. They kept an all-night vigil at the site while continuing to block the main bridge which links Wismar to Mackenzie. However, most of the roads that had been blocked have been cleared and traffic has been moving freely with the exception of free passage across the bridge.
A walk through the town saw that several businesses had opened their doors but a few still remain closed. Ferry services were all in operation. This newspaper was informed that the street demonstration would be intensified today and it is likely that the ferry services will be forced to stop once again.
Information Liaison to the President, Robert Persaud, at a press briefing yesterday at the Office of the President anticipated that once the components for LPC were successfully put in place, there would be a return to power and a return to the free flow of traffic.
Persaud also said that a lease was signed yesterday with Macorp, local Caterpillar distributor, for the provision of two 1.25 megawatt generators and that these would be shipped on Friday.
As part of a long-term solution, Omai Gold Mines Limited is to construct a 9 megawatt power station which should be completed in July this year, he said, indicating that this move was part of the mining company's investment in the bauxite industry.
Speaking with Stabroek News yesterday afternoon, LPC plant manager Steve Bovell indicated that one of the engines loaned to LPC by Guyana Power and Light (GPL) had developed electrical problems, and that had resulted in a significant reduction in its generating capacity.
He related that at around 4 pm yesterday afternoon only one of the engines was in operation and at the time was supplying electricity to some parts of Central Mackenzie and parts of Wismar Front which had been without any power for a long time. MACORP's technicians were up to press time working to bring the second generator back on load.
He observed that the water supply could only be maintained in accordance with the availability of electricity to the various communities. He said he had been informed that the Amelia's Ward pumping station was expected to be back in operation.
Bovell, in giving some background as to how this crisis came about, said that because the facilities were very old, Texas Ohio Energy Inc. (TOE), the parent company of the privatised LPC which is now in receivership, had on several occasions shipped in pumps. He noted however that those pumps, (more than four since the advent of TOE/LPC) were not new or ever reconditioned. As such they kept failing, making the power situation unstable in the community, and also impacting on the operations of the bauxite plant.
When the company went into receivership, Bovell said one of the pumps shipped in by TOE/LPC was sent back to the USA to be reconditioned. He noted that because the parts for those pumps were not easily accessible and could not have been accessed directly from the manufacturers, they were forced to use the local expertise at LINMINE's machine shop and other local firms to fabricate and do other adjustments to the pumps without access to a manual with technical information.
Further TOC/LPC had purchased three diesel engines but due to the poor preparation of the base for the engines, they were extensively damaged and to date that had not been remedied.
Meanwhile, Region Ten Regional Chairman Mortimer Mingo has indicated that reports, particularly in the daily newspapers, were inaccurately conveying the impression of an "improvement" in the supply of electricity and water in Linden.
Mingo said in a release yesterday that the "Upper Demerara Hospital at Wismar is currently without power with little or no prospect of an "improved situation" as is heralded by the misleading headlines of our two daily newspapers."
Further, he said, some areas at Wismar were given electricity for periods not exceeding two hours each since the start of protest action by Lindeners on March 28.
Mingo said the Mackenzie Hospital was still operating solely on its emergency generator which was not designed to work continuously. If that fails, he said, then the hospital would be forced to return to its prior situation when it had to use candlelight during the deliveries of nine babies on March 30.
Persaud at his press briefing also commented on a letter written to President Bharrat Jagdeo from Leader of the PNCR, Robert Corbin, who sought an explanation of the government's efforts to bring relief to the town and other areas in Region Ten. In the letter, Corbin invited the President to go to Linden with him to meet with other stakeholders.
Persaud said a reply had been sent to Corbin but could not disclose its contents as he was not sure whether that response had reached the opposition leader yet.
Stabroek News has however learnt that the letter was sent yesterday and Jagdeo had outlined the government's efforts made to bring relief to the people of Region Ten.
In another letter sent yesterday to the stakeholders, Corbin said: "the problem had been exacerbated by Government's debilitating lack of effort to arrive at imaginative measures to arrest the social and economic decline of the community."
As a consequence of this neglect, the letter stated, the two major utilities, electricity and water, had collapsed. Corbin also called the unrest a natural consequence of the lack of these basic utilities. Those receiving this letter were Omai Gold Mines Limited, Demerara Timbers Limited, the Forest Products Association, the Canadian High Commission, National Bank of Industry and Commerce, Courts, Banks DIH Limited, the Private Sector Commission and the Guyana Manufacturers Association.
Persaud said that President Jagdeo was to visit the area sometime in the future. He contended that the problems of Linden were not the fault of the Government but that of a private company.
The blocking by protesters of several roads in the Linden area is threatening the operations of Omai Gold Mines Limited, forest industries and other concerns.