The majority of the 90 families that live in the Belama Phase 4 area
are without power tonight. But that’s not because of a blackout –
it is because two weeks ago Belize Electricity Limited began cutting the supply
of electricity to customers who were illegal selling electricity to other residents.
It is a major step backwards for the community of mainly squatters who already
have poor streets, no running water, and now – no electricity. Keith Swift
found out more.
Keith Swift Reporting,
For the last two weeks, 14 year Christian Rivas, a high school student, has
been using the light from the window to do his homework. And that is because
– two weeks ago – BEL cut his family’s source of electricity.
Sonia Rivas, Belama Phase 4 resident
“We need the current for our children. They need the fan to sleep
because there are a lot of mosquitoes back here and sometimes we leave the window
open but it is too dangerous back here.”
Yanira Perez’s story is similar. BEL cut her power supply a week ago
and since then – she and her 9 month old daughter’s only source
of light at night is a candle.
Yanira Perez, Belama Phase 4 resident
“We can’t sleep because too much heat and my baby nine months
old can’t sleep neither because she is small and she doesn’t know
what is happening. To go look for another place outside, the rent is too expensive
like how my boyfriend doesn’t have a good job.”
Keith Swift,
So you have a nine month old baby and how do you manage at night?
Yanira Perez,
“I have to use cloth or something for her to sleep because she likes
to cry. It is very hot and a lot of mosquitoes and I have to wrap her good and
she feels hot and all of that.”
And those mosquitoes have had no mercy on Mercy Jimenez’s feet.
Mercy Jimenez, Belama Phase 4 Resident
“You see the mosquitoes bite us because we don’t have lights
and it affects us. I don’t know why BEL doesn’t talk to you for
this thing.”
Keith Swift,
How bad are the mosquitoes?
Mercy Jimenez,
“Yes all the time the mosquitoes bite me I swell and it itches too
much. That has my foot so because I can’t have fan at night.”
BEL’s problems are with wires like this one. It looks like a clothesline
but it is actually an electrical wire. There is an entire network of these wires
here in Belama Phase 4 because there are no lampposts and so there is no other
way for residents to receive electricity. But that power is gone now because
BEL confiscated meters from those residents who were sub-selling electricity-
leaving those who were buying – in the dark.
Mercy Jimenez,
“Me have to pay because me need the light.”
Keith Swift,
How much did you pay?
Mercy Jimenez,
“Not too much money, only $20 a month.”
Yanira Perez,
“Tell them not to cut the current because we are persons just like
them. We need light just like them.”
Noel Reyes, Belama Phase 4 Resident
“Let BEL try to help us because they have forgotten us and we would
pay for them and we would pay for them to put in the current. We are asking
them to come back and put on the light because this time it is hard because
we don’t have work and we don’t have money but we will try and see
how we could pay it because we have children that need the current because they
cannot sleep."
And until there is a permanent solution – residents have found a temporary
one – running their electrical wires underground in PVC pipes.
In a press release issued yesterday, BEL said it had moved to stop
illegal connections and redistribution of power. The release notes that redistributing
power from one premise to another can result in overloads and that could cause
a fire. Of course, so can candles. Government has been mum but Area Representative
Francis Fonseca today called on government to immediately intervene. Fonseca
says that in January of 2008 he began talks with BEL and Belize Water Services
on installing infrastructure for water and electricity but since taking office
the UDP government hasn’t done anything.
7NEWS
produced for broadcast by News Director Jules
Vasquez
Edited and Prepared for the internet by Keith
Swift
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