Power Outage Exacerbates Situation in Caye Caulker

Seleny Villanueva-Pott

To make matters worse on La Isla Cariñosa, there have also been intermittent power outages on the island.  On Monday, sometime after five p.m., there was an emergency outage which affected the southern portion of Caye Caulker between eighty-forty-five p.m. and one a.m.  According to a released issued by the company, the temporary loss of power was necessary in order to compensate for a loss in generation capacity, when one of the generators that supplies electricity to customers on the island also failed.

Seleny Villanueva-Pott, Chairlady, Caye Caulker Village Council

“B.E.L. called late last night saying that one area was without power, Bahia area, the power wasn’t restored until about 12:10 last night and they said why it went that long because it was initially scheduled for 10:00 but it went longer and the reason it went longer was because they were working on the third generator which was down at the time but it’s now up and running.  And the reason they want to get it up and running is so that tonight which is New Year’s Eve where they expect a lot of load is that they don’t have to do any load shedding.  So, from what I was told this morning, we’re in a better position with the power since the third generator is up and running.”

Maria Vega

Maria Vega, Chapter President, B.T.I.A.

“When the B.E.L. submarine cable public consultation was held, I went there to talk alternative energies with them and nobody wanted to hear about alternative energies.  But the B.T.I.A. went to talk about alternative energies so that we wouldn’t have this crisis.  The Caye Caulker B.T.I.A. and the national B.T.I.A. have sat on all planning committees and given generously of our time and expertise so that we don’t have to be here today with this complication at a time when our productivity should be at its maximum.”