By Septimus Senessie in Kono
OCTEA diamond group, operating in the eastern diamond rich district of Kono, has facilitated the delivery of the long awaited two 3-megawatt thermal plants meant for the electrification of Koidu town.
The company’s Community Liaison facilitator, Philip Sorboeh, told Politico that the transportation was part of their corporate social responsibility to the community in which they operate. He added that their contributions towards the electricity project in Kono did not start from the delivery of the generators but that “we also help in clearing the site and providing them with bricks to fence the entire compound and the construction of staff quarter for workers of the National Power Authority”.
He pledged his company’s support to the development of the district and used the occasion to encourage communities to learn to engage the company in a dialogue in the event they felt the company was doing something wrong.
“It is only through dialogue that you will help us develop our beloved district and the country as whole,” he said, adding that violence and confrontation would not be the right approach to settling any case.
The project officer for D&S Associates, the company constructing the Koidu Electric Power House, Bash Kalokoh, expressed satisfaction at the arrival of the 6-Megawatt power suppliers in the district after they had spent nearly seven months at the NASSIT building in Makeni.
He said the long delay to convey the two machines was as a result of the bad road network to the town. He praised OCTEA for helping them convey the machines to the district, adding “our Chinese Engineers will be here in the shortest possible time to start the installations of the machines”.
The provincial service manager of NPA, Harry Reider, assured the people that they would soon provide them with light but said they could not give any deadline. “This is because we have given so many timelines and some of which we could not meet due to unforeseen circumstances”, he said.
He said they had already installed over 600 electric poles and 9 of 11 transformers in Koidu and asked them to exercise some restraints while they doing everything possible to bring back electricity to the township after decades of blackout.
