“Water and electricity rates should already have gone up,” affirmed the president of water and electricity utility Electra’s administrative council, Antão Fortes, yesterday, April 17. The official spoke to the press during a guided visit to the Palmarejo power station’s two new generators on the 26th anniversary of the founding of the company.

Antão Fortes was speaking about Electra’s financial situation, an issue which has been taken to the Council of Ministers, Cape Verde’s cabinet, for deliberations, but regarding which Fortes declined to specify any measures. What is certain, according to Fortes, is that one of the ills afflicting the company’s financial well-being is the increase in fuel costs, which has yet to be reflected in water and electricity rates. “The company is unable to bear the weight of this increase,” he warned.

In order to mark the 26th anniversary of Cape Verde’s water and electricity utility, Antão Fortes acknowledged that the company is undergoing a “complicated” phase, but is convinced that it will manage to become “stabilized.”

He pointed to new projects in development that include the reinforcement of its energy production capacity through the two 7.5 MW generators that recently arrived in Praia. “Within 18 months to two years’ time, the high-tension distribution network that will connect the Palmarejo power station to Calheta, which will then distribute electricity to the other municipalities on the island of Santiago, will be functioning,” he affirmed, adding that this project will be the result of investments on the order of 34 million euros.

Antão Fortes says he understands people’s expectations, but stresses that these projects “take time to develop.”

As far as water is concerned, Praia’s second desalinization plant is currently being repaired, and a third is expected to be installed by the end of 2009. These projects, as well as the requalification of the water conduct, will cost a total of 200 million escudos.

The company’s wind farm projects, which will eventually provide between 25% and 30% of all electricity on a national level, with units set to be installed in Praia, São Vicente and Sal, will kick off in late 2009.

Souorce: A Semana