The Daily Observer (Banjul)
Musa Ndow
28 May 2008
Ousman Jammeh, the secretary of state for Petroleum and Energy, accompanied by Momodou Jallow, the managing director of NAWEC and other senior staff of NAWEC, yesterday visited the Fajikunda Health Centre, following a scary electricity sparks on Sunday night, which sent patients and staff out of the facility.
The visit was meant to inspect cause of the incident and map out plans to end its reoccurence there.
Upon arrival at the health centre, the SoS and his delegation were received by Julah Jaiteh, the officer-in-charge of the health centre, who thanked the delegation for reaching out to them.
She reconfirmed that the incident occurred on Sunday night, while she was in her room and heard people shouting fire! fire!. According to her, upon her arrival at the facility, she saw the patients and nurses on duty running out of the ward shouting.
"I then quickly asked the ambulance driver to switch-off the main meter which automatically turned-off the high supply in the health centre", she explained. The NAWEC personnel were also called in and did some wiring job and the light came back.She expressed hope that such a thing would not happen again.
For his part, Ousman Jammeh, the secretary of state for Petroleum and Energy, said the visit was due to the report he gathered about the incident and advised that certain facilities should be carefully looked at and installed at appropriate places to avoid panics in cases of emergency.
He advised the health centre maintenance team to re-locate those switches which were said to be installed by Italians in the health centre outside the wards to a suitable places. He urged the health centre officials to alert NAWEC on such emergency cases on 169.
SoS Jammeh assured the health centre management of his department's readiness to help them fix the problem as quickly as possible, even though the problem happened out of their jurisdiction.
Momodou Jallow, the managing director Director of NAWEC, informed the team that the problem was not from the NAWEC, but it was internal "There was a short circuit after the meter which was an underground connection, believed to have been installation long time; for more than 20 years. Naturally, things may happen, but when it happens, the people in charge should alert them so that they can come in to help in where it is necessary. This is why we advised consumers to inspect installations and make sure that they up grade them when they increase the appliances", he urged.
Mr Jallow expressed his department's resolve to make sure that electricity supply is normal. "The most important thing that I would like the public to note is that, our work at NAWEC is only limited to supplying the flow of electricity up to the meter, but we are not responsible for any internal installation of facilities. So anything after the meter is the responsibility of the consumer. This is why with regards to all installations, it is important to inspect the installed facilities and appliance in the consumers premises", he further advised.
Mr Jallow went on to explain that they are aware of the fact that fingers are pointed at Nawec for any little problem. He described this as a challenge and assured that they will continue to sensitise the public about their operations.
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