By Mabinty M. Kamara
As Energy Minister Alhaji Kanja Sesay embarks on the electrification of communities across the country, residents of Magnus community in Wellington have called on him to pay attention to their plight as they continue to deal with electricity challenge.
Magnus community, which is in the east end of Freetown, is located in an industrial area of the capital city. The residents say they have been deprived of efficient power supply for a long time now, a situation they blame on the activities of the factories which they say are feeding from their transformer.
Fatmata Jalloh, a resident of the community, told Politico that it was over two years since they started experiencing low voltage and sometimes power outage running for weeks. This, she said, has affected those engaged in business and who rely on electricity. She said they have sometimes had their appliances damaged due to the fluctuation of voltage.
“We have been going through this for far too long now. We get light but our children cannot even use it to study. We the parents cannot use it to watch film or preserve food in our fridges, because you will just be risking your appliances if you turn them on,” she said, adding that it was very disheartening seeing other nearby communities getting bright and consistent light when they can’t.
“It pains me when I go to buy ice block to cold my drinks in this same Wellington where we should also be enjoying the same facility. We have meters and we do buy credit from EDSA (Electricity Distribution Supply Authority) and we see the Minister going everywhere to light up other communities,” she said.
Ibrahim Sesay, another resident, said that all he had to say was to call on the government for its intervention as they have complained for too long now without any solution, not even from their community representatives.
“I am on whatsaap and I see every day that the Minister of Energy has taken transformer today to community A and the other day to community B, even in the provinces. And recently I also heard that he has installed transformer in a community that has never had light before. So what about us who probably just need to do some maintenance or replacement of a part on our transformer? So all we have to do is beg them to see to our plight. We need bright light and we deserve it as a community. As for our MP and councilor, they don’t even care to know,” he lamented.
Magnus falls within Constituency 115, whose parliamentary representative is Alpha Amadu Bah. Mr Bah rejected suggestions that he hasn’t taken action to address the issue. He told Politico that he has been playing his part, including paying a visit to the EDSA sub-station at PMB Junction, where he was told that the only solution to the problem is to change the transformer.
“They told me that it’s only transformer that can solve that problem because the current one is overloaded and that the available transformers have all been allocated. So they have to wait until new transformers are ordered. So it has to do with continuous engagement with the appropriate authorities, like it has been done in other communities,” Bah said.
The All Peoples Congress MP added that EDSA further told him to formally request for transformer for the community so that when new transformers are available, they can be considered for allocation. But the lawmaker said he was yet to make the request. According to him, the problem wasn’t isolated to Magnus, noting that many other communities within his constituency face similar problems, for which he intended to do a consolidated request.
Politico contacted the Public Relations Officer of EDSA to explain the technicality of the problem and what they have done so far to address the issues, but he didn’t respond to our request.
Copyright (c) 2020 Politico Online
