By Kate Press, Carleton University
After cementing a solar module onto the roof of a clinic in rural Liberia
Kate Press, the founder of the Carleton University Rights & Democracy Delegation, is now the Project Advisor with the Peace and Development Corps (PADCO), a Sierra Leone-based, youth-focussed volunteering program, which aims to alleviate poverty and consolidate peace. Kate came to work in Sierra Leone with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), an international development charity that sends skilled professionals as volunteers overseas to share skills and build capacity.
'Candlelight dinner is no longer romantic. It's routine. I just celebrated my eighth month of living in Freetown, Sierra Leone without electricity. Every morning on my way to work I drive past the paradoxically darkened windows of the National Power Authority (NPA) Government office also known as 'Electricity House.'
Freetown is one of the few capital cities in the world that does not benefit from a consistent power supply. For the past 25 years the nearly completed Bumbuna Hydro-Electric Project, situated a few hours outside of Freetown, has symbolized a seemingly unattainable goal. This 88 metre dam will one day be able to create 50 Megawatts of electrical power (Freetown, a city of over 1 million, would require approximately 35 Megawatts). Until that time comes however, anything with a plug necessitates a fuel guzzling generator.
In a country where over 70 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, the 300,000 Leones (approximately 100 US dollars) price tag for the cheapest Tiger brand generator, means that most Sierra Leoneans are left in the dark. You need electricity for development and considering the epileptic energy supply experienced since the 1980s, it's no wonder that Sierra Leone is ranked last place on the 2007 United Nations' Human Development Index. Getting stuck in a three hour traffic jam to deliver a document uptown is frustratingly inefficient when you consider that in most countries the same document could be sent via email in less than 30 seconds. Computers need juice to work but the fuel used in generators is an expensive distraction for businesses that should be concentrating on getting the economy off the ground. A health system is not functional if routine blackouts occur mid caesarian-section or during emergency surgery. And students forced to study by candlelight are at a disadvantage. Furthermore, regular fuel shortages and the high cost of fuel do not help inspire investor confidence in this generator-dependent economy (The past SLPP government was so reluctant to raise fuel costs that, in an effort to maintain the then fuel price, it slashed the road tax. As a result the roads have all but deteriorated).
It is not surprising then that electricity was the main campaign issue during the recent August 2007 elections. Unhappy with the sluggish rate of development experienced under President Kabbah and his Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP), Sierra Leoneans voted for change. Ernest Bai Koroma, the opposition leader of the All Peoples Congress (APC), took power on September 17, 2007 and was officially inaugurated at State House on November 15, 2007.
As one of his first directives, Koroma promised the people of Sierra Leone an early Christmas present: by December 20, 2007: there would be light. Thirty-two million dollars was allocated by the Government (with the help of the World Bank) for a one year emergency power supply. Ten and fifteen Megawatt power plants (think massive generators) were flown in to Freetown's island airport and shuttled by ferry to the mainland. APC supporters decked out in T-shirts that read "Bye Bye Kabbah Tigers Hello Ernest Electricity" lined the streets, jubilant. This environmentally unfriendly form of electricity is only intended to be a one year interim solution until the Bumbuna Dam is up and running, and cleaner-Hydro power is made available.
Judgment Day arrived. The President met crowds at the King Tom Power Station. APC officials made telephone calls to various neighbourhoods in Freetown as part of a public verification that the Government's promise had been fulfilled. The respondents were exuberant.
It was only hours after this colourful ceremony that the truth emerged. It came to light that light had not come. Some APC members maintained that SLPP supporters had simply refused to switch on their lights. Others argued that the power plant had been sabotaged. SLPP forces called the whole event a "Presidential Orchestrated Deception."
No one knows what really happened and why there was a delay, but a few days later the people of Freetown—those who were lucky enough to still be on the grid after years of copper wire and NPA cable theft—had light.
It was time to pay my electricity bill and get reconnected. And last night for my first time in eight months I could see what I was eating for dinner.'
