Government fires back at criticism and concern over Amalia hydro-power project

The Government of Guyana is not happy with the pushback it has been getting regarding the Amaila Falls hydropower project, and Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh has conveyed that disappointment.

The project is one of the flagship projects of the last PPP government but was scrapped when the former APNU+AFC took government in 2015.

When the PPP moved back into government in 2020, it revived the 165 Megawatts hydropower power project which the government has since said will start later this year and be completed in 2025.

But the project has come under heavy scrutiny with persons questioning the viability of the project, while others have questioned the cost and the decision to have it owned by a Chinese company for 20 years.

The Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh said he is concerned that there is misinformation being peddled about the project.

“I want to express in the strongest possible terms my grave disappointment and indeed our government’s grave disappointment at the campaign of misinformation that is being waged in relation to major development projects and in particular, most recently, in relation to the Amaila Falls Hydropower project,” the Finance Minister said.

The Minister is of the view that there is a misinformation campaign ongoing against the major government projects.

But some of the persons who have questioned the big government projects have pointed to failed projects like the Skeldon Sugar factory project and the Fibre Optic Cable project.

Civil Society groups have also warned the government to not make the same mistakes that it did with those major projects.

But the Finance Minister is assuring that the Amalia project was subject to extremely detailed studies and analysis by international technical experts and it was examined by international development agencies and bilateral partners such as Norway.

“Let me be crystal clear that the resumption of this campaign of misinformation has one objective in mind-the same objective as the misinformation campaign during the pre-2015 period and that is to frustrate development-to deny the people development as long as the PPP/C is in office,” Minister pointed out.

The government has long argued that the development of the hydropower project is needed to fulfill the current development and expansion plan of the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), which projects that total capacity required will be 465 MW and energy of 2,900 Gigawatts-hours (GHW) in 2025.