Minister of Information and Communication Infrastructure, Ebrima Sillah, says the National Water and Electricity Company Ltd. (NAWEC) has secured grants from the World Bank, to the tune of US$ 66 million, through the ECOWAS regional energy access programme, to provide access to electricity for communities within 100kms radius from the OMVG substations in Soma, Lower River Region and Brikama, West Coast Region.
“Communities in Upper River Region and Central River Region will also benefit from the ongoing Electricity Restoration and Modernization access programme,” Sillah said at a weekly inter-ministerial press conference organized by the ministry of information at 6th session held online here on Friday.
He added: “The current available generation capacity is 67 MW as opposed to the current daily demand of about 70MW. Because of the deficit between demand and supply, NAWEC is forced to carry out limited load-shedding during evening peak demand. However, frantic efforts are being made to recover at least 25-30MW of lost generation capacity from now towards the end of October 2020.”
He disclosed that by the end of the year, NAWEC will be operating with a reserve generation capacity to mitigate any shortage caused by network failures due to old transmission and distribution infrastructure.
He said in order to address the challenges on the transmission and distribution infrastructure, the World Bank, together with the European Investment Bank, are funding the upgrading and rehabilitation of the network through The Gambia Electricity Restoration and Modernization Project (GERMP).
He also called for bids from interested parties for the extension of transmission and distribution lines between Lamin Koto in the Central River Region and Diabugu in the Upper River Region, covering about 60 villages.
“NAWEC has started an ambitious project funded through the Indian line of credit, through communities within the Greater Banjul Area will be provided access to potable drinking water. The implementation is well advanced and, in a few months, most or all the boreholes will be in operations. NAWEC is also getting an emergency COVID response funding from the World Bank, the French Development Agency and the OIC Secretariat for water projects to meet the demand,” Sillah disclosed.
