Sierra Leone News

Archive for the ‘Electricity In Sierra Leone’ Category

Well, it’s been a while but I’ve been super busy! Anyway this is just a quick update. Salone na swit! The electricity - I don’t know if it’s Bumbuna has been CONStannntttt since June. May was terrible but since then it’s been great 24 hours non-stop more or less. The few times we suffer blackouts, it lasts not more than an hour!

Occasionally, (about 3x now) it’s gone off the whole night. Gradually, it’s becoming a non-issue. What will be great is if the wattage/power is boosted in the evening so that I can use the microwave! I look forward to that… Rome wasn’t built in a day..

The Salone Republic is up and coming… very soon there’ll be more progress, better roads, more businesses, ha ha ha… Na swit salone indeed…

Well, what I can I say… back to square one - noisy generators, no light during the day and so on! I keep hearing excuses - fixing technical problem, waiting for the rains etc.

In April, we had light almost throughout starting from Good Friday only for it to off on the 29th April, 2 days after independence.

I mean what’s going on? Sierra Leoneans deserve 24/7 light and nothing less. I’m tired of hearing all the different excuses.

To those in charge of Salone light: just get on with it and give us the light we deserve. Confound the doubters and make Sierra Leone proud.

Back to the darkness we’ve not experienced for sometime. Not impressed but at least they gave notice. Wonder how often this will be. When one gets used to electricity, it’s hard to go back to the pitch blackness that pervades when it’s absent.

Now getting used to noisy generators, candles, torches… etc all over again and oh I’m about to fry all the fish in my freezer to prevent them from getting spoilt…

We’re expecting the light back on Friday / Saturday. FYI

To all my readers I wish you all bucket loads of joy and happiness in the coming year. Yes judging by the date, I should have posted this yesterday or before but man…I’m so busy!

But to do so I’ll have to drag myself from sampling the delights of the beach. (Of course sorry to those in the BIG Freeze - Our Christmas was spent in Bikini sipping chilled coconut… No need to make you even more jealous you get the idea! Nevertheless, I must say I do love truly white Christmases too but only once in a while  )

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As you may well know, the Bumbuna Dam is nearly 100% operational. Recently, we have been experiencing better light. In fact from Thursday last week till Saturday we had light with no interruptions and this is the first time this has happened since we came to Sierra Leone in January 2008.
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Yes Salone is up and coming…. Well I feel much better and literally brighter - yes with the Bumbuna NPA light. Since two weeks now we’ve had light almost every night - sometimes it comes in at around 6.00pm, sometimes after we’ve gone to bed but never during the day. This is a much better situation and we’re all looking for more.

I heard from the grapevine that NPA made an announcement that they’re testing Bumbuna but apparently it’s only up to 20MegaWatts instead of the 50MW which is currently being worked on…

Needless to say, having brings about a “feel-good” atmosphere that only those of us who’ve experienced the lack of it can understand. I look forward to powering my laptop during the day with NPA and listening to the radio and doing all the frivolous things I can think of… simple things like storing ice cream in the freezer an eating it when I want.…

I also look forward to civilised quietness when all generators in the area including ours are off:

Here are some of the stuff I’ll save on each month

(current $ rate is about $4,000, you do the math)

40-60 gallons of diesel a month / @Le14,800 per gallon = Le592,000 - Le888,000

6 packets of giant candles /month - @ Le10,000 each = Le 60,000

Gosh… I can’t wait….Will update when more changes happen

As I posted last time, we were expecting the Bumbuna by the end of July. Well, the President did switch on the turbine and it appears the dam itself is finished?? Or so I hear because from the time I posted till now (about 4 weeks ago) we’ve had electricity here in Lumley ONLY 3 Nights!!!

Yes it’s that bad!! According to high profile sources I know at the NPA (National Power Authority), what’s delaying things are archaic substations, poles and connecting wires. Apparently most of the old wires were stolen for scrap exporters especially during the war. Well now we’re all paying for it.

So far we’ve used nearly 60 gallons to power our generator Now thats BAD!! (A gallon costs Le 14, 500) Can you imagine what businesses are going through?? That’s why business are non-existant here but that’s for another post!

Although, I’m still optimistic and I’ll advice anyone reading who intends to come to wait until there’s electricity. Of course unless you can’t help it.

Yep, no electicity for 5 days straight!! Wonder what’s going on. Thank God for the genereator otherwise our evenings would have been miserably dark!

I hear rumours of the test driving of Bumbuna on the 31st of July. I hope this is true because this so-called “test drive” has been rescheduled several times. Heck, I don’t want to loose my optimism.

Wake up Sierra Leone!