President Bharrat Jagdeo has committed $50M to the paving of seven miles of road in Linden and residents say they will stop their road blockade, which has crippled the operations of Omai gold mines and other companies, when the work starts.
Jagdeo visited Linden yesterday for the second time in a week as the government looks to redress the chronic power and water shortages which have sparked widespread and disruptive protests in the mining town. Omai Gold Mines Limited has been forced closed because its access road has been blocked and the company has hinted that its planned investment in the Linden Mining Enterprise could be jeopardised. Other companies are unable to service their interior operations or transport goods. At several group meetings the President said how embarrassed he was that to date there had been no improvement in the situation.
The commitment for the road works comes in the face of a blockade of the Mackenzie-Wismar bridge and other roads that has effectively blocked supplies going into a number of companies including Omai, Demerara Timbers and Toolsie Persaud Ltd.
The work will involve the bitumen surfacing of the road between Bucktown creek, One Mile/Wisroc Junction through to Block 22, Wisroc road and from the One Mile junction to Phase Three of Wisroc.
According to Jagdeo, surveyors from the Public Works Ministry and Seereeram Brothers Construction were given directives to be at the location by 9 am today to start work. Once this was done the residents have agreed to stop blocking the road.
In addition to the $50M, major users of the road have all agreed to contribute towards the completion of the works. Omai Gold Mines Limited has agreed to provide crushed stone, which takes up almost 50% of the cost along with transportation. Trans-portation would be taken care of by Omai, Toolsie Persaud Ltd and B&K International, which will also be providing fuel. David Klautky Asso-ciates and Seereeram Brothers Construction would both be providing consultancy advice on engineering, surveying and design.
As for the power problems Jagdeo said yesterday that the newest explanation given for the delays was that there was some problem with the fuel for the three engines sent in by the government from Georgetown. He said he had been informed by the power company that sometime last night they were hoping to have at least one of the engines running and that would be used to provide electricity mainly to key areas such as the Linden Hospital Complex and the water treatment plants.
When Jagdeo revealed this development, the protestors at the bridge said they would be holding out on the bridge until full power was restored. They said that too many times in the past they had been given promises that did not come true.
The President said the privately-owned Linden Power Company (LPC) - the collapse of which sparked the present crisis - should have the other two generating sets up and running by the weekend. In the medium term the two sets leased from MACORP, which are currently on their way from the USA, and the anticipated remedial work to the LPC steam plant to be completed sometime next week should mean a more reliable supply.
President Jagdeo an-nounced that the government could no longer rely on the Linden Power Company - now in receivership - to generate electricity for the bauxite operations and the community. “I can’t put my hopes on refurbishing the steam power plant, then in two or three months from now there is an assessment that it can’t happen because it’s old, it’s outdated, its unreliable and it is not cost efficient and then the situation returns as it is today... I have got to find some alternative, more reliable situation.”
One alternative had been an offer by Omai Gold Mines Limited to set up a 9 MW power station as part of its planned investment in Linmine.
Jagdeo briefly stopped at the LPC’s steam power plant where the three generators sent by the government are located.
There he had a firsthand look at the problems and at the new pump recently purchased by the company. It was outlined that the pump was currently undergoing major adjustments since it was not set to the required specifications.
He also stopped at the Linden Hospital Complex where the hospital’s generator was out of service and there was no electricity or water. He immediately ordered the regional chairman to acquire four overhead tanks and furnish the institution with water. He promised the nurses there that on his next visit to the town, scheduled for next Tuesday, he would have an audience with them.
Other residents were concerned that when the power supply was rectified they would still be faced with a water problem. On this account he instructed Minister of Water Shaik Baksh to return to the town sometime next week to sit with residents and to ensure that the $200M allotted for water improvement was used in the best interests of the people.
Other issues raised by residents included job creation, job losses as a result of the power outage, the dust nuisances, the closure of the Wismar hospital, the unreliability of LPC, and the misinformation that has been fed to the President regarding the supply of electricity and water to the community.
Since Saturday most of the town has been without water and for the past two weeks, without electricity.
Jagdeo has advised residents to form a committee that would meet with him on a monthly basis to address development in the town. A proposal was presented to him for an improved service at the Linden Television Station.
A co-management team is yet to be set up to help guide the operations of that entity.