Serrekunda — The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the National Water and Electricity Company (NAWEC), Mr. Pierre Sylva, has said that he is aware of the customers' complaints about the recently increase of electricity disconnection fees to D200. He said the same also affects people who are using taps in their homes.

"We use our resources to disconnect and reconnect. We use our cars, fuel, people etc to go to various destinations for the exercise. This we think will encourage our customers to make sure they are not disconnected," argued Mr. Sylva

Mr. Sylva was however quick to add that any NAWEC staff who charges more than D200 for reconnection is doing it at his own risk because the official tariff given is D200.

Some electricity consumers will recall that NAWEC was charging only D50 for reconnection. Some customers are also alleging that some NAWEC staff are charging even more than D200 for the reconnection.

One Assan Sonko of Lamin village said to this reporter "Just recently, I was disconnected but they charged me D300 for reconnection. This is very expensive and I think the NAWEC authorities should look into this and issue receipts when reconnection fees are paid."

Ismaila Jadama, another NAWEC customer complained that early this month he was disconnected but that to his surprise when he went to settle his bills he was informed that unless an extra D200 is paid his electricity will not be connected. He expressed concern on the high fee and calls on the NAWEC authorities to reduce the charge to an affordable sum. Many other customers who spoke to this reporter lament similar constraints. Another complaint being made by electricity consumers is the lack of many selling points for the cash power.

When this issue of the lack of cash power outlets was raised, PRO Sylva said they are also aware of the difficulties when it comes to cash power buying,. He said that during the week a lot of people are seen queuing to get their cash power. He assured that this problem will be solved very soon as they are working on how to establish more selling centres for cash power. He explained that NAWEC is considering having many vendors just like the GSM or mobile phone companies are doing.

"We will soon introduce the selling of cash powers in the streets and in shops," said Mr. Sylva.

The NAWEC PRO said they will let the public know when this new system will commence.