Copyright jamaica-gleaner
From stealing fuel to the vandalism of cable wires by unscrupulous persons, for trade in the unregulated copper industry, the leading utilities companies agree that weather conditions arising from the passage of Hurricane Melissa may not be their biggest threat to restoration. Daryl Vaz, minister of energy, telecommunications and transport, has recommended that a vandalism/theft hotline be commissioned to safeguard against the illicit practice during the passage of the Category 4 hurricane. The latest act of vandalism took place between Saturday night and Sunday morning in Cassia Park, crippling the services of telecommunications provider Flow. Stephen Price, vice-president and general manager for Flow Jamaica, said this also comes on the heels of fuel being stolen from its cell sites earlier this week. “Unfortunately, during the pre-storm assessment, and in the past week, we found that 10 of our generators, some 1,300 gallons of fuel were stolen in the past week. I ask the public to be our eyes and ears out there. When you see anybody doing anything out there that’s untoward, anybody near any of our sites, just report it to the police,” Price said. He was among the heads of utility companies who were jointly hosting a press conference at the headquarters of the Jamaica Public Service (JPS) yesterday morning. Steven Maragh, CEO at Digicel, said theft and vandalism can cause major setbacks. Both telecommunications firms have added 150 new generators since last year. “That’s almost 70 per cent. We have 925 towers across Jamaica… . I want to stress, lithium batteries will only last three to six hours. The generators will only last as long as fuel is in there, and that’s important,” Maragh said, adding that fuel theft hurt the company during Hurricane Beryl last year. He said that in St Ann, during the passage of Beryl, the company’s facility was drained of every drop of diesel fuel. “Which is why we lost St Ann, not because of the winds or anything like that, but because individuals decided to drain that tank. I can’t stress enough that if you take away critical infrastructure, whether you want to go and steal the diesel, or get frustrated because of the security measures and decide to damage everything, it will take us much longer to provide critical services for our customers and that is just unacceptable,” Maragh said. He also outlined that today’s society is more impatient than ever before and asked for patience as the utilities recover. “In some instances we, we are gonna have to rebuild and that is a factor, and it’s gonna take time,” Maragh said, adding that the country would need to be back up and running again to continue building on its economic gains. Matthew Samuda, minister of water, environment and climate change, said the public, while staying safe, should look out for suspicious activities. “As you see something that gives you concern, someone going up to a cell site, someone heading to one of the JPS (Jamaica Public Service) sites, someone going to NWC (National Water Commission) sites with generators or [who] doesn’t fit, not usually in that community, please alert the police, alert the service provider. It doesn’t make sense that you don’t have water or you don’t have cell service, not because we didn’t prepare, but because someone chose to steal the fuel,” Samuda said. Vaz also urged Jamaicans to look out for those who seek to set back the country. He applauded the plans from the utilities providers to bring in equipment and personnel from overseas, because it would be required based on the projections in relation to the hurricane. Vaz said that the country needs to make the post-hurricane period as easy to navigate as possible. “Everybody in every community must look out for their brother and sister but, most importantly, they must look out for those who want to set us back, by greed or for whatever other reason, by interfering with government property or the telecoms or JPS property. The 20 gallons of diesel that they steal for whatever reason is 20 gallons less of what will be used for you in your community to provide cellular service, electricity, or whatever else it is,” Vaz said. andre.williams@gleanerjm.com
