Lofa County residents in various districts are expected to benefit from electricity supply before the close of the year, following the hydropower dam completion on one of the rivers in Massambolahun, Kolahun Statutory District.
It shall benefit Voinjama, Foya, Kolahun, Massambolahun or Bolahun, and surrounding villages and towns’ residents, all located in the northern part of Lofa County.
The estimated cost is US$22 million, of which the World Bank within SREP provided US$20 million and IDA gave US$2 million for the diesel back-up system. The Rural Renewable Energy Agency (RREA), an agency of the government, is implementing the project.
County Superintendent, William Tamba Kamba, told the state-owned media (ELBC) that the dam shall be 100 percent complete and be amongst the developmental projects that are to be dedicated before or in November of this year.
Others include the George Weah Peace Hub in Foya; ongoing construction of Lofa Sports Stadium, which is at an advanced stage, reconstruction of the damaged bridge between Vahun and Kolahun, customary boundaries harmonization, Gbarnga to Voinjama paved road, of which 70 kilometers have been completed, and many more developmental projects undertaken by the government in the county.
Kamba stated that when the dam, an initiative of the government and its partners, is completed, it shall light up Voinjama, Kolahun, Foya, and other places in Lofa which have been struggling for paved road and electricity for over a century.
As we speak, he continued, light poles have begun to be planted in the above mentioned districts in the county, to the delight of the locals, as part of the development taking place in the county.
“Though Lofaians did not vote for George Weah en masse during the 2017 polls, but his developmental agenda goes across the borders, for which the county is benefitting at the moment,” Kamba noted.
The first component of the Liberia Renewable Energy Access Project (LIRENAP) aims to create access to affordable, reliable, year-round electricity services to about 50,000 people in northern Lofa, by establishing a first mega-watt scale hydropower grid, backed up with thermal generation based on diesel.
Lofa is an economic and agricultural hub in the Northwest of the country, close to the border with Guinea and Sierra Leone. The county was one of the hardest hit during the Ebola outbreak and the civil war.
It is more than 200 kilometers from the national grid, and there are no prospects in the medium term to provide service from the national grid.
The decentralized grid is planned to focus on the towns of Voinjama, Foya, Kolahun, Bolahun, and surrounding areas.
Presently, some large businesses in the area such as agricultural processing plants, as well as commercial and public entities, have their own diesel generators.
Households and small businesses do not have any electricity services or have limited, unreliable, and expensive electricity supply from informal diesel generators.
The electricity demand of the mini-grid includes agricultural processing and other productive and commercial uses, as well as household needs.
Therefore, a reliable and continuous supply of electricity is needed, also reaching large customers from 20 kilowatts to 100 kilowatts, including hospitals and large educational centers.
Several productive uses such as stores, sugar crushers, and palm oil processors in the range of 5-10 kilowatts, have been also identified.
Four percent of the potential connections will be for commercial or institutional users, which represent almost 50 percent of the electricity demand.
Elsewhere, in River Gee County, several developmental projects of super structures like the regional cash hub, football stadium, new city hall, superintendent compound, pavement of various kilometers of roads from Fishtown to Kanweakan, and other places, are ongoing.
County Superintendent, Philip Nyenuh, told the media that the regional cash hub, which is the country’s largest after that of Gbarnga, Bong County, will most likely benefit the southeastern bloc, which many times has been suffering from cash shortage.
He said most of those super structures are either at the advanced stages of construction, or already completed.
Nyenuh, Chairman of the Southeast Superintendents Council (SSC), told journalists that River Gee County is making significant progress, in terms of development, for the first time since the establishment of the county in 2000.
Nyuneh also expressed joy over the construction of the 20-kilometer road between Fish Town and Kilipo Kanweakan, emphasizing that residents of the county have been overwhelmed by the progress and accorded gratitude to the government.
“I am so happy that the government is paying keen attention to the needs of the people of the Southeast, particularly River Gee County, in various sectors,” he indicated.
