By Mabinty M. Kamara
As power outage across the city intensifies, citizens across the country have expressed dissatisfaction over the situation, and are therefore calling on the management of Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) to step up their service provision.
The last one month in Sierra Leone has witnessed intermittent power supply in Freetown, which, according to residents, has had great effect on their businesses and general livelihoods.
Mabinty Suma, a resident of Wellington, eastern part of the capital city, in an interview with Politico expressed dissatisfaction over the situation, noting that it has seriously affected her business.
“We are tired of talking all the time and nothing happens. I don’t know what is happening to EDSA. This is very appalling and unacceptable,” she said.
Florence Robert, a banker at one of the commercial banks in Freetown, shares similar sentiment about the electricity situation in the city. According to her, she has had to avoid preparing variety of meals ahead of the week as she usually does.
“I used to prepare like three to four different meals for the entire week, but with this type of power cut, it’s been like two weeks since I last prepared them. And it really affects me, because I have to go cook every evening after work, which is not easy for me,” she said.
Robert therefore appealed to the appropriate authorities, including the Ministry of Energy, to swiftly address the power situation in the city.
“I was one of the people that were very happy with the introduction of the prepaid meter. Apart from it saving us from the exorbitant charges that NPA used to charge us blindly, I was hoping that we will get uninterrupted power supply because the more light you utilize, the more you recharge, but to my disappointment, this seems to be getting bad,” she said.
Mohamoud Kalokoh, a trader along Back Street, said he had already gotten his generator ready for use.
“When I told my brother last week to clean up the generator, he didn’t take it seriously. But he has started seeing the seriousness of what I told him this weekend when we were watching game and EDSA took the light for about three times. And they are not even civilized to talk to people about what the issue is. We don’t know what more to do about this electricity situation. There are Bumbuna and recently the ship that came and our businesses are suffering,” he lamented.
Politico contacted the spokespersons for both EDSA and the Ministry of Energy to get a reaction from them on the issues, but neither of them returned out calls.
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