Let there be light - but not in Hope Pastures
Published:Saturday | April 12, 2014 | 12:00 AM
THE EDITOR, Sir:
Hope Pastures is a residential area in Kingston 6 that has been in existence since the 1960s, but many roads in Hope Pastures have been in darkness for more than a year despite the unique feature of an underground power supply.
Initially, the area was protected from power outages caused by fallen trees and motor-vehicle accidents, but this false sense of protection has been erased because 50 years ago, some genius laid down the entire underground wires without conduits to protect them from the underground elements. What is worse is that the laying down of the naked wires was also approved by another genius, company or group.
Unfortunately, the residents who bought their homes in Hope Pastures were unaware of this problem and have not benefited. The Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) has, however, benefited from this problem because it has saved millions of dollars from an inability to properly maintain the underground system for the past 50 years.
As the system continues to break down, the residents suffer from long periods of power outages, exploding transformers and a lack of street lights. The blackout problems have only been Band-Aided and recur weekly.
On one recent occasion, when a transformer blew up and was burning, a resident reported the incident by calling the emergency JPS number. She was told that the emergency team would be dispatched immediately.
After a few hours, when the team did not arrive and the transformer continued to burn, she called the emergency number again and was told that the team was actually on site fixing the problem but the reason the residents were unable to see them was because the wires in Hope Pastures run underground and the team was underground fixing them.
The residents then concluded that the JPS must have dispatched a team of six-inch workers who had burrowed themselves into the earth because they were nowhere to be seen as she and others stood in front of the burning transformer. That is an example of the intelligence of some front-line JPS employees who serve the public.
The JPS has no choice but to now replace the underground wire system with an overhead system and the burden they have determined now falls on the residents of Hope Pastures to pay for the installation of the new system. The initial cost to each household is now determined to be close to $35,000, with further additional costs of upgrading each home to receive the new power supply.
With approximately 300 homes in the area, this would cost the JPS approximately $10.5 million, an affordable figure to this multimillion-dollar company that no doubt collects that amount every hour each day.
MANAGEABLE SYSTEM
There are many persons who had purchased homes in the area at its inception and who are now retired. They are being asked to pay to replace the defective service that was approved by the genius of the day.
One would believe that the money saved by the JPS over the past 50 years, because of its inability to properly maintain the system, could now be used to convert the old to a better and much more manageable system.
JPS has even admitted that upgrading an old external overhead system to a newer overhead system would cost the residents nothing. So why are these financial demands being placed on these residents for this change of service? Is this a case that the residents of Hope Pastures are thought to be fools and this is a process of taking the fools a little bit further?
In addition to the suffering that Hope Pastures residents endure without lights, there has been an upsurge of criminal activity, including theft, housebreakings, gun-buttings and attempted kidnappings over the past year.
The immediate neighbour, Hope Gardens, has added fuel to the fire of frustration by renting out its facility as a party venue, and weekly parties are held until wee morning hours, with music loud enough to awaken head-injury and comatose patients. What is next for these suffering residents?
Well, the process has begun for the upgrade to the new system and new utility poles are being erected along all roads. Some have been beautifully erected directly into the NWC pipes under the sidewalks. Maybe this is a secret plan to water these new poles to keep them alive, or maybe it is a plan to wreck the existing water pipes so that the residents will be asked to pay for a new water-supply system.
It seems that no one is interested in, or has taken the care to study, the topography of the area before the installation of the new poles, so since it appears that the installation of the new system is starting badly (and we in Jamaica know that "What gawn bad a morning caan go good a evening, wooey"), what are the residents of Hope Pastures to expect from the new power-supply system?
Are the residents of Hope Pastures swapping black dog for monkey? Can the JPS convert its six-inch underground employees to full-grown efficient surface workers? Was it the JPS that approved the installation of 'naked' wires in the first instance, 50 years ago, or was it government electrical inspectors?
For the answers to these questions and for the continuing saga, tune in to the next episodes of 'Let there be light, but not in Hope Pastures'.
Dr Jennifer Mamby