By Mabinty M. Kamara
A day after the departure of one of the two Turkish run power ships, a major power cut hit the eastern part of the Sierra Leonean capital, Freetown, raising concerns about the return of recurrent outage.
Prior to its departure, the Karpowership 2 was stationed at Cline Town, from where it supplied power to the eastern part of the city.
The government said it had to terminate the contract with the Karadeniz Energy Group, owner of the Karpowerships, because the problem that led to the hiring of the ship had been solved.
The Energy Ministry said there was no need keeping the two ships when one of them, combined with the Bumbuna hydro dam, could provide more than what the two ships could.
However, just a day after the ship was to depart on September 11, a major power outage hit many parts of eastern Freetown, notably from Portee to Waterloo. That left many residents in the affected communities skeptical about the sustainability of the power supply in the absence of the ship.
Aminata Mansaray, a resident of Allen Town, was shocked to learn from Politico about the departure of the Karpowership. She noted that she was surprised about the cause of the almost 48 hours of blackout that hit her community, since it had been a long time they had such an experience.
“No wonder this blackout has lasted this long. I had just packed my yogurt in the freezer for sale when the light went off. I am very confused right now because I am not even sure when the light will come back,” Ms Mansaray lamented on Sunday, September 13, over 24 hours after the power had gone.
“We are calling on EDSA (Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority) to please send us light. For some of us, it is from light that we get to take care of our families,” she pleaded.
Unlike Aminata, Roy Foday, a resident of Wellington, was not surprised at the long power outage, noting that he expected that the moment he saw the notice on social media about the imminent departure of one of the ships.
“This is something we have to get used to because even when the ship was at Cline Town, we had intermittent power supply, talk less of now that the ship is no more,” he said.
But even as he is unhappy about the situation, Foday appears to agree with the decision to let the ship go.
“We cannot rely on the ship forever, because of the [limited] resources available. So we have to try to solve whatever issue we have with our energy sector if we are to experience sustainable power supply in the country”, he said.
The Energy Ministry, however, doesn’t appear to be aware of the severity of the problem residents in the affected community faced over the weekend. A spokesman of the ministry told Politico there was no blackout.
But Austin Lusaini would later confirm that there was indeed a problem, after consulting with the relevant technicians. He however insisted that whatever happened had nothing to do with the departure of the KP2.
“Like I told you before, we have done the needful. If the Karpowership departs and there is power outage, it could be a coincidence, but not because of the Karpowership,” he said, adding: “It might be a technical issue, maybe like I told you in certain areas of the east where overloading of transformers make the voltage extremely low or may be due to the rehabilitation of old cables across. If power goes out for a whole day, that could be a reason.”
Lusaini later admitted that there was indeed a problem. He said on Friday, September 11, there was an issue at the substation at Black Hall Road.
“But when that happens for the rest of the day, at mid night, light was restored. So how would you complain that you have gone for over two days without light? That is not to our knowledge at all,” he said.
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