Dear Editor,

My heart was warmed and my spirits lifted when I saw the recent story headlined, ‘$1.5 billion initiative to provide electricity for 25 communities’. As one moves around our island, while most of our heavily populated town centres have the benefit of being on a relatively reliable electric utility grid, far too many villages and hamlets are without access to the precious commodity. After all, poor people and those who live in rural areas, some by choice and some due to extenuating circumstances, also need legitimate access to a reliable electric power supply.

So when one gets to the story behind the headlines, there is much to celebrate. However, I offer the following comments and caution.

It is good to provide new customers with access to electrification and, as the story makes clear, the project is being pursued under the Street Lighting, Installations, Loss Reduction and Community Renewal Initiative of the Ministry of Energy, Science, Technology and Telecommunications. However, the cost of provisioning of public street lighting falls under the Ministry of Local Government and Community Development. It is not lost on us that recent publicly reported stories point to the local government ministry contending with over $3 billion owing to Jamaica Public Service (JPS) from street lights alone.

So here we have two separate ministries touching a project, and with a poor track record in terms of expense management. For sure, this abominable state of affairs ought not to detain this new push at rural electrification. Rather, it demands that there be proper and effective co-ordination and collaboration between the ministries, the local government operatives, the JPS, and community stakeholders to ensure that the new and additional street lights brought on board do not add to the huge bill owing to the JPS.

As the project will not be implemented instantaneously, it would be good to have the Ministry of Local Government demonstrate that it is already reducing the amount owed rather than having the liability increase, and the public should be made aware of the effective steps being taken to identify street lamps that are blazing during the daylight hours, and that there is an implemented project or process to have them turned off in the day or otherwise economically and efficiently regulated.

Christopher Pryce

christopherjmpryce@yahoo.com