Guyana powered up again with Chinese help

A team of technicians from Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province, played a vital role in the resumption of the power supply in Guyana, offering a helping hand to people in the South American nation.

Mark Phillips, prime minister of The Co-operative Republic of Guyana, expressed his gratitude to China for the team's help in restoring electricity in the capital of Georgetown.

The undersea cable under the Demerara River in Guyana, which was built by Chinese-funded enterprises and put into use in 2012, was damaged by anchors on Nov 27.

This is the only 69kV undersea cable in Guyana. It is the key connecting cable between the two major power plants in Guyana and most users in the country.

The damage occurred less than one month before Christmas and the peak of electricity consumption in the country was rapidly approaching.

The cable was damaged for a similar reason in June 2019. Orient Cable in Ningbo provided the connector and the restoration effort was highly recognized by Guyana back then.

Upon receiving notice from the Ningbo Foreign Affairs Office, Orient Cable in Ningbo quickly set up a special working group comprised of Liu Ming, the leader of cable repair in Guyana in 2019, and two other technicians.

At the same time, the foreign affairs department of Ningbo launched green channels for their passport handling, overseas mission approval, vaccination, and epidemic prevention materials allocation so the team set off for Guyana on Dec 9.

It took the team more than 70 hours to travel through South Korea, the Netherlands and Panama, finally arriving in Guyana on Dec 12.

The cable was successfully repaired on Dec 24. Power in parts of the capital was restored. At that time, it had been only 23 days after the Ningbo team received the request for the rescue mission.

Cui Jianchun, China's ambassador to Guyana, hailed the emergency repair mission. "This exemplifies the friendship between the two countries and China's people-centered approach in promoting the development of bilateral relations."

Xiao Da in Hangzhou contributed to this story.