Gambia blackouts hit businesses before election

Prolonged blackouts in The Gambia are disrupting businesses, food storage, hospitals and water supplies just months before the country's December 5 elections.

Power cuts that began in June have sometimes lasted 12 to 48 hours. In some locations, water supply has been cut for up to 24 hours. Hospitals have had to rely on generators that have occasionally faltered, while residents have struggled to charge phones and keep food cold.

In Tanji, home to The Gambia's largest fish landing site, fish vendors told AFP that limited ice supplies had made it difficult to store the daily catch. Sirah Darboe-Manneh, a 31-year-old fish monger, said customers were buying less fish because they had nowhere to keep it. She said the price of ice had more than doubled because many vendors make it in home freezers and lack electricity.

Two nights of protests broke out last week, with demonstrators blocking roads and calling for President Adama Barrow to step down. Barrow is seeking a third term in the December election.

Barrow has promised that the electricity situation will improve by the end of October. Vice President Muhammed Jallow said during a visit to a transmitter substation in Bijilo on Saturday that Barrow had set up a taskforce meeting daily.

Barrow said in a television address last week that a 24-megawatt generation machine would be commissioned by the end of October in Brikama, near Banjul. He also said a contract had been awarded for a 50-megawatt solar power plant in Soma.

The National Water and Electricity Company said in mid-August that the blackouts were caused by demand surges, mainly because of high temperatures, along with constraints on electricity imports and a technical incident. In June, Barrow said the company owed money to Senegal's public electricity provider, Senelec, and that the debt was affecting efforts to provide consistent electricity.

The cuts have also hit other livelihoods. In Sukuta, mill operator Amadou Gaye told AFP he could not run his electric mill without power. Tailor Ebrima Camara said he had been forced to use a foot-pedal sewing machine to complete school uniform orders.