“22% of Senelec’s national debts are owed by local authorities, i.e. 25 billion CFA francs”, according to Issa Dione, who yesterday represented the Minister of Petroleum and Energy at the National Workshop on Lighting. public organized by the Agency for the economy and the control of energy (Aeme).
By Moussa Seck – “You will agree with me that each of us finds that the lights stay on all day long through the streets and arteries of Senegal, which is really a problem. On top of that, it’s very energy-intensive lighting with outdated lamps, which consume a lot of energy, faulty maintenance, broken clocks. In short, a lot of problems that make lighting in Senegal far from efficient. It was on the sidelines of the second day of the National Workshop on Public Lighting that the director of the Agency for the Economy and Energy Management (Aeme) made such a statement. Statement in itself eloquent enough to underline that there is still darkness to hunt in the field which occasioned the meeting held this October 11 in Dakar. Mr. Saer Diop nevertheless pointed his spotlight on solutions. In this, he emphasizes that almost everywhere in the world, “when we talk regarding energy management, we also talk regarding energy substitution, alongside energy efficiency and energy sobriety. It is in this sense that the State of Senegal has initiated a major public lighting program using solar power, alongside conventional lighting”.
The Minister of Petroleum and Energy was represented at the workshop by Issa Dione. Who has not spared himself to talk regarding the cost of public lighting. “22% of Senelec’s national receivables are owed by local authorities, i.e. 25 billion CFA francs.” And, if this is so, it is because these communities “want to make the State bear their energy consumption. The State has its bills to pay and most often, even if in the end, it pays the local authorities’ bills, it ends up being a significant shortfall for Senelec. Because we stay months, even years to manage debts, as I said, which are not sure to be paid. I think this is an issue that needs to be clarified so that people know that when you consume water and electricity, you have to pay”. It mightn’t be clearer: town halls are not very good customers…
But this meeting was not made without the mayors. And it was Mbaye Dione, Mayor of Ngoudiane, also Secretary General of the Association of Mayors of Senegal (Ams), who spoke on their behalf, not without acknowledging that there are problems. And to make interrelations with the mayors for a rational use of electricity. An interpellation will go to the place of the State. Indeed, as recalled by the Dg de l’Aeme, the State plans to provide communities with 115,000 streetlights, in addition to the 50,000 already distributed.
Only, according to the Secretary General of Ams, these have not been installed in the best possible way, some being placed in sectors already supplied by the conventional network. This will make him point out that the populations who most need these thousands of expected streetlights remain those living in areas not yet served. Because, he says, “access to electricity should not be a luxury” and in this sense, everyone should benefit from it.
