Gambiaj.com – (BANJUL, The Gambia) – Businesses and the general public have expressed growing concerns over the National Water and Electricity Company’s (NAWEC) recurring power outages affecting numerous areas across the Gambia. The most affected regions include the majority of the West Coast region and the Greater Banjul Area, where severe electricity blackouts have disrupted daily life and business operations.

Over the past weekend, utility customers experienced significant water supply interruptions and power blackouts from Saturday through Monday. NAWEC’s Electricity Operations division has clarified that these disruptions are due to ongoing essential network renovations by contractors.

NAWEC management explained that the modernization project, which is still in progress, required the network to go offline for final testing. The contractor had requested an eight-hour shutdown, which was communicated to the public by NAWEC’s communications department.

Initial plans proceeded smoothly until the contractor encountered unforeseen technical issues, preventing the completion of the work within the planned time frame. Consequently, the repairs and updates had to be abandoned and resumed the next day.

Adding to the complications were severe technical difficulties and heavy rainfall. NAWEC management emphasized that staff safety could not be compromised by working in adverse weather conditions, necessitating a pause until the rain subsided.

Additionally, technical problems from the Senegalese power supplier to NAWEC’s Brikama branch contributed to the power outage.

NAWEC has announced that work has been temporarily halted and will resume over the upcoming weekend. Officials have acknowledged the setbacks and assured the public that they are optimistic about avoiding the dramatic outages experienced over the weekend.

As the modernization project continues, the challenge for NAWEC is to improve the reliability of the electricity and water supply, while striving to minimize future disruptions and ensure better service delivery to the nation.