The Director General of the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority Abu Kamara has disclosed to this medium that the increase in power outages is due to structured shedding made necessary by changes in weather and negative human interferences.
According to him, power outages and shedding is an unfortunate norm during the dries in Sierra Leone due to reduced water levels of Bumbuna hydro dam, the main supplier of electricity to Freetown and its environs, but with the exponential increased demand for electricity, it is proving difficult to meet these demands.
Mr. Kamara explained that this challenge had been handled with the partnership agreement with the Côte d'Ivoire, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (CLSG) Electricity Networks Interconnection Project but human interference had made the challenge all the more daunting.
Minister Kanja Sesay emphasized to this medium that the human interference mentioned include lack of public cooperation in not harboring neighborhood mayhem causers, electricity theft resulting in loss of revenue amounting to billions of leones monthly, cutting of cables, logging activities, deliberate sabotage and many more.
The Director General and Minister however assured that despite these challenges, after the cleaning of the turbines of the Bumbuna hydro dam which is slated to last for eight days, electricity generation will increase to normal and shedding will reduce drastically.
These shedding, blackouts and increased power supply is expected to be at normal by the mid may period.
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