Electricity to be restored in Monrovia within days

Mains electricity will be restored to parts of Monrovia within a few days, more then 10 years after it was cut off during fighting that damaged a hydro-electric power station, the European Union representative in Liberia said on Wednesday. Geoffery Rudd told reporters that power would be restored gradually using a diesel generator and fuel supplied by the EU. "For the past days the EU in collaboration with the Liberia Electricity Corporation [the state power company] have tested the power distribution lines in Monrovia," he told reporters. "Within a matter of days, electricity will be supplied once more." However, most power lines in this city of more than one million people are broken, so power will not be available to all areas immediately. "Bit by bit, the EU is going to make sure that the power distribution system is improved in Monrovia, first using a hi-tech 470 KVA power turbine." Rudd said. Liberia’s power supply was cut off in the early 1990s when fighting damaged a hydro-electric dam at White Plains on the northern outskirts of the city. Since then, the only power electricity has come from private generators, but only the wealthy can afford them. Last year, the head of the Liberia Electricity Corporation, Joseph Maya, told a Liberian senate hearing that it would cost US $100 million to rehabilitate the White Plains hydro-electric scheme. The EU has also helped to reactivate the water treatment plant at White Plains. This was knocked out of action for three months after rebels began a series of attacks on Monrovia in June. "Right now, water is flowing into the Bushrod Island, but the major problem has been the 30-inch pipe which was used to pumped water into the city center," Rudd said. "We are looking at ways of repairing it, but for now we will continue trucking water to the city." Until the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) rebel movement launched its assault on Monrovia, over 500,000 people in the city centre relied on raised EU storage tanks for drinking water, but these have all been peppered by bullet holes in the fighting, which ended in early August.