May 17, 2021
By Aruna Kamara in Bo
A-Z Newspaper has gathered that work is in progress at the Bumbana hyrdro dam, a development that is delightful to many Sierra Leoneans. The Ministry of Energy under the dynamic leadership of the Alhaji Kanja Sesay has in the prevailing strides to better power generation and distribution received commendation from a cross section of the population.
Residents around the Dam in a telephone interviews with this medium said that there should be thorough monitoring of the maintenance of the Dam to ensure that it stands the test of timeas a lot of money was pumped into the project but much was left to be desired.
The Management of Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority has informed the general public that it has received a notice letter from its sister company ‘Electricity Generation and Transmission Company (EGTC) stating that the usual annual maintenance work on the Bumbuna Hydro Electric Power Dam will commence on Monday 17th May to Wednesday, 26th May, 2021 at 7am for a period of 10 days.
This was contained in their public notice, which further stated that ‘’The Operations and Maintenance Contractors will carry out the maintenance activities. This maintenance activity is geared towards lengthening the life of Bumbuna Dam so that it will continue to serve the public in a much effective, reliable and sustainable manner.’’
It added: ‘’The Management of EDSA wants the public to know that upon commencement of this activity, there will be a shortfall in generation which will lead to rationing of electricity in Makeni and Freetown. However,the Authority shall ensure equitable distribution of power supply to all our valued customers as best as we can. ‘’
According the notice; “members of the public are required to make complaints to EDSA by calling 672 or 079695104 in situations of sectional power outages that may be as a result of fault. The Authority further assures the public that upon completion of the maintenance activity, Bumbuna will be connected to the grid to carry on with its normal generation activity.’’
‘’We thank our valued customers for their patience and understanding as we seek to better our service,” the notice concludes.
The 50MW Bumbuna hydroelectric power plant is located on the Seli river in the Tonkolili district of Sierra Leone, West Africa.
Construction of the first phase of the plant was started in 1975. About 85% of the project was completed by May 1997 when work was suspended as civil war broke out in the region. Construction was restarted in 2005 and was completed in 2009. It was launched to provide a consistent, inexpensive and clean source of energy for the region. The Italian cooperation and development bureau was responsible for the construction of the plant.
In spite of having a design capacity of 50MW, the plant is producing only 35MW of power since its commissioning. Insufficient water supply to the Bumbuna dam and technical problems have contributed to low production.
The plant was built with an investment of $327m.