The shouting of relief could be heard from houses, shops and on the streets when power was restored in Madang before lunch after being in total darkness since Friday 16th February 2024.
The total outage was due to a collapsed power pylon near a river at Omea, along the Ramu/Madang Highway. The situation had caused so much distress to residents, business houses, government entities, schools and institutions as the situation was coupled with water outage as well.
PPL in Madang handled the situation well with constant communication and updates with residents and the general public through the Neighborhood Watch – Madang Crime and Alert WhatsApp group which kept citizens calm whilst waiting for power to be restored.
According to Mozo Livason, the Madang PPL manager, they faced stiff challenges which caused the delay of the restoration. Mr. Livason advised citizens in the social platform that despite PPL’s request to JV Contractors to use one of their excavators which was located a few meters from the fallen pylon, they refused as payment would have been made on Monday.
This left PPL to use manual labour to drag out the pole from the river which took two days. On top of that, Mr. Livason also mentioned that even Land Owners were demanding a new contract payment for the new location, however, they managed to handle that.
Meanwhile, in town, blackouts were common but five consecutive days were the longest without water, which left some business houses, clinics and schools closed earlier than usual.
The worst day was on Monday, when even fuel ran out in town, causing motorists to line up at fuel stations except Puma service stations. There was congestion at the Rooke’s Marine and HandyMart service stations and other smaller vendors causing traffic hazards everywhere.
This event also triggered a spike in bus fares ranging from K1.50-K3 within town and k15 and above for outer locations. Even highway PMVs charged K200 and boats to the islands increased fares by K5 or more.
The situation returned to normal yesterday when Exxon Mobil’s fuel shipment arrived on Tuesday afternoon.
Whilst everyone was grateful that power was restored, power kept on fluctuating throughout the day and night even resulting in a few transmission lines blowing up in certain locations in town, to which PPL linesmen swiftly attended.
People are now calling on the Government and the members of each district to liaise in providing lasting solutions to electricity woes in the province.