Prolonged power cuts in The Gambia are disrupting businesses and livelihoods as the country faces its peak hot season and prepares for December elections.
In the coastal town of Tanji, fishmonger Sirah Darboe-Manneh works beside empty ice boxes because electricity shortages have made it difficult to preserve the daily catch.
The 31-year-old mother of six mentioned that customers are buying less fish because they have limited facilities to store it. The price of ice has also more than doubled.
The outages have lasted between 12 and 48 hours in some areas since June. Businesses have closed, hospitals have relied on generators and residents have struggled to refrigerate food and charge phones. Some communities have also experienced water interruptions.
The disruption has triggered spontaneous protests, with demonstrators blocking roads and calling for President Adama Barrow to step down. Authorities later announced that protests would require official permits.
Barrow has promised improvements by the end of October. He has announced plans to commission an additional 24-megawatt generation unit in Brikama.
The government has also awarded a contract for a 50-megawatt solar power plant in Soma.
The National Water and Electricity Company, NAWEC, has attributed the outages to increased demand during high temperatures, constraints on electricity imports and a technical incident. Barrow has also acknowledged outstanding debts to Senegal’s electricity provider, Senelec.
For workers such as tailor Ebrima Camara, the crisis has meant returning to a foot-powered sewing machine.
“It’s very, very hard. It’s very painful,” “But I don’t have a choice.”
