Albert and Regent Streets are right now the worst streets in Belize City. They’ve been that way since March when the three utility companies began preparing downtown for a re-paving. The City Council promised the inconvenience would last for a month, then they said two, but now it is four months “and change” later and the downtown streets are only getting worse. Well today –things got even worse when a major part of downtown Belize City, the heart of the country’s commercial capital experienced an all-morning into the afternoon power outage.
Power was cut because BEL chose a Tuesday to bring in linesmen and bucket trucks from across the country to change 2 dozen lamp poles on Albert Street. Again this was on a work day and it brought an already busted out downtown to a tipping point. Our 7NEWS studio was smack in the middle of it and Keith Swift traded the heat of the office for the dust and heat of the street.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Today Albert Street, from King Street to Bird’s Isle - was closed to traffic and pretty much closed for business. Starting at 4:30 this morning, an army of BEL workmen with heavy duty trucks descended on Albert Street to change two
dozen lamp poles on Albert Street. They started at Brodies and by noon, there seemed to be a truck or two on every block.
A labor intensive, time consuming endeavor and for all that time there was no power all along Albert Street, the city’s main street on a working day. That’s why Doony’s was closed. Other stores like Mirage and Photo Korea remained open but had no power, no lights and no fans. So customers had to shop in the dark – which meant little or no business.
Kamal Panjabi, Mirage Store
“Yes it affected the business bad because people come and see. Our store is a boutique and with no current there is no light and people can’t see anything. People are coming inside because we have a sale going on but people say they can’t see anything, especially upstairs. There is no light and so they are just coming down back.”
Keith Swift,
Were you told the power would be off?
Kamal Panjabi,
“This morning no. We didn’t get any warning.”
Sunil Balani, Store Owner
“No business without light. We can’t do no business. It is too hot inside, we don’t have any current.”
Keith Swift,
Did you know there was going to be a blackout?
Sunil Balani,
“No, today they didn’t inform us.”
Haresh Babani, Store Owner
“It affects us at the home and the shop. At the home it affects us because we cannot bathe good because of power because we have pump and it needs electricity. So we can’t bathe good because we use purified water to bathe and then at the shop there is no light and fans and it is very hot.”
Keith Swift,
What are you feeling like right now?
Haresh Babani,
“Congested. Every time you feel
sweaty. You want to wash your face but no water is coming to wash your face. It makes you feel very hot.”
Keith Swift,
Did you know the current would be off all morning?
Haresh Babani,
“I see the news but they didn’t say it in the news.”
The power outage which lasted until 2:30 was also news to Ernest Olivera at G’s Laundromat on Dean Street. He had all these dirty clothes but he couldn’t wash them because he had no power.
Ernest Olivera, G’s Laundromat
“It is a great deal of setback because I thought those people should have worked on that in the night when nobody has these kind of work to do so it affects us a great lot.”
Keith Swift,
So you got no work done this morning?
Ernest Olivera,
“Not at all as yet but they say another half an hour from now. I am patiently waiting for the power to come on so that I can get some business going on so that I can pay these sort of light bills. If you can see the amount right here, right now we are almost in the thousands and that is what we have to deal with plus other costs. At least they could have done that at night.”
These merchants say the street closure and power outage has already made a
bad situation worse in downtown Belize City. That situation is the dust. It may be just an inconvenience to drivers and pedestrians but these businessmen say it is costing them money.
Issrani Bhadwun, Store Owner
“I want them to fix the streets as soon as possible because I lose a lot of things to dust. That is what I want. The dust is coming in the shop and the customers don’t want to buy the items. If I want to sell I have to sell at half price so I am losing money.”
Keith Swift,
What has the City Council told you?
Issrani Bhadwun,
“Well they said they were going to fix it in March or April but July gone and I don’t know. A lot of people get cough and cold. I want them to fix it as soon as possible. They’ve tried to fix it but they have problems and everytime they are digging and digging and I want them to fix it as soon as possible.”
But after waiting so long – even “as soon as possible” doesn’t seem to be soon enough.
A BEL representative says most of the work was completed today but there will be planned outages over the next week which is when they will complete phase two. The public will be informed in advance as was the case with today’s outage. As for an ease from the dust, deputy mayor Anthony Michael told us in June that the work would be completed by the end of July. That will be on Thursday which is when Michael today told us he’ll have an updated timeline for us.
We have been informed work on the city’s main streets will begin tomorrow. Well, not the streets, the sidewalks. A contract was signed yesterday between Collet Maheia and the Ministry of Works and construction of the sidewalk between Dean and South Street will start tomorrow.
