Freetown — Manager of operations and maintenance at Salini construction, the Italian company contracted to complete the decades-long Bumbuna hydroelectric project in the Tonkolili district, northern Sierra Leone, Serafino Ciro has confirmed to a team of visiting journalists that the electricity the capital Freetown is enjoying today is indeed coming from Bumbuna.

A lot of issues have emerged since the commissioning of the project by the president on November 6 this year, with some schools of thought proffering that electricity currently powering Freetown was not coming from Bumbuna but a particular firm being 'secretly' contracted by the government to do the job. Or it is the Kingtom power station that is still providing light for the city; while government loyalists believe it is indeed the almighty Bumbuna.

As the ethics of journalism demand, it behoves on journalists to seek the facts about the reality or not of Bumbuna and bring them to the public to put to rest a debate that is almost always pitching leaders and supporters of the two oldest political parties in the country.

On a blistering Saturday afternoon (Dec. 12, 2009), a team of about 15 journalists from both the print and electronic media, representing various independent news outlets, left Freetown for the northern headquarter town of Makeni to join-up with other journalists from the south and east for the long and craggy trek to a town that has recently gained celebrity status due to the plethora of publicity (good as well as bad) it has generated since the date for the commissioning of the dam was announced by the current political administration.

SLAJ president, Umaru Fofana, decided to extend to other local journalists an opportunity granted him by the government to visit the Bumbuna site and do an independent story, so as to give the coverage a wider scope and varied dimensions.

The fact-seeking journalists left Makeni at about 9:30am on Sunday and exhaustively breezed into Bumbuna township before midday, having survived a heavy dose of red dust along the un-tarred road. The haggard and hungry-looking journalists - who only took as breakfast half a loaf of bread with three small slices of plantains and a cup of tea - quickly rekindled their energy as the adventure had partly come into fruition. Note pads, microphones, digital and video cameras started popping out but this did not panick the hosts as our visit was official and indeed, imminent.

First to face the usual 'clumsy' questions from the journalists was Serafino Ciro, manager of operations and maintenance at the Italian company managing the project, Salina construction. The first question of "is Bumbuna actually generating the electricity the capital Freetown is getting at the moment?" seemed to have taken him aback, perhaps in totally surprise at the question itself. Ciro responded: "Yes, we do send 25 megawatts daily to the Kingtom power station in Freetown, which is responsible for distributing the power. Bumbuna is currently generating 50 megawatts but the power station in Freetown can only handle 25 megawatts."

Asked why Kingtom is only utilising 25 instead of the 50 megawatts the project is generating, Ciro said: "That question should be directed to the authorities at Kingtom. Our responsibility is to generate the required megawatts, so it is left with the power station in Freetown to utilise all of it or whatever percentage they want to use."

Ciro's deputy, Mengeste Tadesse from the electrical generating, transmitting and distributing (EEPCO) firm in Ethiopia, underscored what his boss had earlier said that it was indeed the Bumbuna dam that is supplying power to Freetown.

To get a more clearer understanding as to why Bumbuna is producing 50 megawatts but only half of it is being utilised by the national power authority, the media corps asked the mechanical and maintenance engineer, Vandi Bockarie, who said the Kingtom power station lacks the capability to handle all of the power the plant is generating. He said even the 25 megawatts they discharge to Freetown is most times not fully utilised.

"We are working according to the demands of NPA; if we discharge more than the capacity they can handle, that will cause destruction to their machines and we don't want that to happen," said Bockarie.

The mechanical and maintenance engineer took us round the hydro facility, starting with the left tunnel outlet which discharges excess water to avoid an overflow of the dam. The 50-megawatt water regulation and hydropower facility is located on the Seli River near Bumbuna town itself. The 88-meter high, asphalt concrete-faced, rock fill dam is 440 meter crest-length and has a water intake structure, two spillways with associated tunnels, an above-ground powerhouse with two 25 megawatt turbo-generator units, and a Y-shaped reservoir with a width of 30 kilometers and 445 million cubic meters of storage capacity.

Sierra Leoneans had waited for over 30 years for a project started by late president Siaka Stevens in the 1970s to actualise, but it was not until November 6 this year that it was officially commissioned. For many years, the non-completion of Bumbuna led many to lose faith in the commitment of the country's leaders to improving the lives of their people. As our findings revealed, the project cannot be said to be totally complete until every nook and cranny within the Freetown municipality benefits from the power supply.

Moreover, taking Bumbuna to the stage it is today did not come cheap as funds for completion of the project included support from the World Bank (US$50.5 million consisting of an International Development Association grant of US$12.5 million and a partial risk guarantee of US$38.0 million), the African Development Bank (US$3.8 million), the government of Italy (US$19.9 million); OPEC (US$8.4 million), the Netherlands Clean Development Facility (US$0.3 million), and the government of Sierra Leone (US$8.9 million). The total project cost US$91.8 million.

Makeni is another town to benefit from the Bumbuna project. Bockarie said the town currently boosts of a 34.5kva transformer that has been installed. He said the plant has power in it but all that is needed for electricity to return to the township is for it to be fully wired.

Freetown may be enjoying power generated from Bumbuna but the communities hosting the project are suffering the brunt of environmental degradation as a result of overflowing from the dam. Flooding due to overflowing of the dam few months ago hit a number of villages in the Kalasongoia chiefdom in the Tonkolili district, and the Diang and Kasongo chiefdoms in the Koinadugu district. The foundation of eight houses in Wairya and Gbongbotor villages were completely undermined by water and eventually slept away. This was confirmed to us by the Paramount Chiefdom of Bumbuna town, PC Alimamy Bockarie Yellah Koroma III, who said though the completion of the project was a success story for Sierra Leone, host communities have to deal with a lot of environmental challenges.

He said one village in his chiefdom, which he did not name, is almost becoming a semi-island due to repeated flooding that is affecting the eco-system of the area.

So, is Bumbuna alive or just a fantasy? I choose the former, but we need between 80 to 100 megawatts to bid final goodbye to power outages in Freetown and its environs.