By Kebba Ansu Manneh
The Managing Director of the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC), Baba Fatajo, has threatened service disruptions to public entities that are owing the company millions of dalasis. Mr. Fatajo made this statement at a press conference on Monday 26 November 2018, where he threatened to shut down both water and electricity supply to state-owned enterprises, institutions and parastatals.
The authorities at NAWEC said last year alone state-owned enterprises owed the company more than four hundred million dalasis in arrears. In justifying the planned disruption of services to state entities, Mr. Fatajo said “we are not a philanthropic organization nor a charity and for that matter we cannot afford to supply power without payments.”
According to him, NAWEC has hundreds of millions of dalasis in outstanding arrears with customers which the company needed desperately to implement other projects. To move forward, he argued, NAWEC therefore has no choice but to shut down the water and electricity supply to defaulters.
Mr. Fatajo said the new measures to recover NAWEC’s debts from defaulters will not spare public enterprises, and state-owned institutions from service disruptions. “Public institutions must understand that we have come to the limit and now the best option is to shutdown water and electricity supply to institutions that are at default,” Mr. Fatajo stressed.
He said NAWEC’s patience have been hanging on the interest of The Gambian people who will be the main victims when drastic measures are taken against public institutions. He added that despite this consideration, however, it is also in the interest of the nation for the arrears owed to NAWEC be paid so that the company can continue to provide its mandate to the nation.
Mr. Fatajo said his company will, for now, not name and shame defaulters but will soon resort to just doing so when that becomes necessary. He argued that his company has given enough time to defaulters to settle their bills. When pressed to name the agencies that are in default of payment of arears, he said “I will beg not to name the state institutions that are owing us, but I can tell that one of these institutions is owing us D70 million, and another one close to D50 million. These are public institutions that knows well that services are bound to be paid.”
On the state of the water supply situation in the country, Mr. Fatajo said NAWEC has already embarked on drilling more boreholes in the Greater Banjul area to improve the supply of water to residents of these communities. He revealed that some of the boreholes were vandalized by certain unscrupulous individuals, lamenting that these have caused losses of about four million liters of water daily. Mr. Fatajo disclosed that, the vandalism of boreholes contributed to the shutting down of some boreholes in the Fajara area which, he said, resulted to the water crises in the Pipeline neighborhood.
On the NAWEC/Senelec electricity deal, Mr. Fatajo said NAWEC has benefited hugely from the contract, noting that before the agreement his company was able to supply only 13-14 hours of electricity. He added that after signing of the contract, NAWEC now supply up to 24 hours of electricity.
According to him, most of NAWEC’s engines that supply rural Gambia were powered by diesel fuel that is expensive in the global market. He disclosed that NAWEC is no longer bearing the huge burden of cost for fuel, maintenance and other logistics in providing electricity to the rural people. Mr. Fatajo added that NAWEC will continue to collaborate with Senegal in ensuring that electricity becomes accessible and affordable to The Gambian people.
He disclosed that Senelec deal allows NAWEC to acquire up to 10 megawatts of electricity. He revealed that due to his company’s lack of adequate capacity, NAWEC is able to distribute only 3 megawatts.
Mr. Fatajo also disclosed that NAWEC recently benefited from funding from partners to expand on its transmission and distribution capacities. He said that this development will also allow many communities and settlements both within the greater Banjul and the provinces to have access to uninterrupted electricity and water supply around the clock.
Responding to a question from The Gambia Times on the water crisis experienced by the communities of Kaur and Bansang in the Central River Region, Bakary Kanteh, the Provincial Director of NAWEC, said his company has taken steps to arresting the problems. According to him, NAWEC has taken short-term measures to addressing the water shortage in Kaur. Mr. Kanteh put the cost of a permanent fix for the water shortage in Kaur at ten million dalasis. In assuring the public on the fitness of the water for human consumption, he said, “I can assure you (The Gambia Times) that the water of Bansang is fit for consumption and I can tell you that every three months samples are taken to ascertain whether the water is fit for drinking.”
Mr. Kanteh said the scientists at PURA and the Water Resources Department are taking samples of waters across the country every three months to ascertain their qualities and safety. Once a concern is identified, he said, then these institutions will raise alarm with NAWEC for redress. He concluded by saying that plans are being taken to build one production plant in rural Gambia to mitigate the inefficiencies of managing numerous boreholes in the region.