-Community residents worry but dress light poles with zinc
The issue of power theft in Liberia remains a major problem for past and current governments, further exacerbating the inefficient transmission and distribution system of the national power company, Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC).
In recent years, administration of former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf tried to ensure that Monrovia and other parts of the country are electrified, but the dream was not accomplished when her administration ended.
During her administration, the Mount Coffee Hydro dam destroyed during the country’s senseless civil war in the 1990s, was rehabilitated putting out some 88 megawatt of power.
It was thought that in addition to that and the Luke heavy oil plant on Bushrod Island would have done the trick—restore reliable and efficient electricity not only to Monrovia but neigbouring settlements.
But the inability for national power company to light up most of Monrovia and its environs has triggered repeated protests in various communities both in Monrovia and in the suburbs, sparking series of caveats from the LEC’s management that power theft is having a serious toll.
One of the communities that is facing the problem of power theft is the Cow-field Community in Du-port Road, Paynesville, outside the Liberian capital, Monrovia.
To help the Liberian government combat the issue of power theft, residents of that community have embarked on serving as their own security by placing zinc around light polls in their communities to deter power thieves from climbing them.
This, according to the residents, will serve as some form of security at night when those ‘current stealers’ visit the community.
Mr. Jeremiah Johnson, a resident of the community said “those boys are very bad; they come over night and steal the meters.”
He said this has caused many residents to engage into connecting themselves with stolen current.
Another resident, Mr. Eddie Fohnati Nimely said: “since our current transmitter broke down months ago, we have written the management of the LEC to see how best they can help us connect our current line again, but nothing has been done to settle it.”
“LEC needs to be proactive when it comes to customer service. They need to have emergency services number that will be active, respond to customer within 45 minutes,” Mr. Nimely added.
According to him, if the management of the LEC starts to respond to customers in time and settle their problems, it will help to reduce the issue of current theft.
“If LEC was proactive and customer has problem with their line and they respond in time, we would not have been in this kind of problem,” Mr.Nimely told this Reporter.
For her part, Mrs. Johnetta Steward said: “if everybody is connected who you think will talk about stealing current.”
Mrs. Steward indicated that the best thing the management of the LEC can do to make sure that everyone has current and they should make sure that they respond to their customers on time.
The Cow-filed Community in Paynesville is not the only community faced with the growing problem of power theft.
Other communities in around Monrovia includ Jallah Town, Gardnersville, New Georgia, central Monrovia and also face semilar problem.
In the Jallah Town Community recently, residents took to the streets after they faced the problem of breakdown of the LEC transformer without replacement for many weeks.
In another area outside Monrovia, Caldwell, residents took the main street setting up roadblocks, burning tyres on the pave road and clashing with Liberia National Police officer, leaving several persons injured.
The management of the LEC has complained of the action of community residents who are in the habit of constantly stealing current.
Recently, the LEC management announced that it was losing millions due to power theft.
The state-owned power company, Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) has come under strong criticism from President George Manneh Weah for not living up to public expectations.
In a press statement issued by the Executive Mansion last Thursday, the Liberian leader has blamed LEC for “triggering disenchantment and upheavals amongst the people.”
“In these modern times, electricity is a basic need for all and my government will not allow anyone play with such a need,” the President said in a meeting with the management of the LEC Thursday, December 13, 2018 at the company’s Waterside headquarters.
Frequent and prolonged power outages and LEC’s failure to connect a large chunk of the population in Monrovia and its environs have, in recent times, sparked widespread street protests by residents in various parts, with many of them becoming violent.
President Weah’s assertion comes a week after a European Union grant agreement was signed to boost electric power distribution to provide US$12 million for the improvement of the country’s power distribution network,
The EU’s Charge’d’ Affairs, Mr. Juan Antonio Frutos said 38,000 households will be connected in Monrovia and its environs. Report by Mark N. Mengonfia- mmenginfia@gmail.com