The nation is in tatters. Families are being forced to cook outside, businesses are unable to make an income, schools are affected, and the electricity supplier is scrambling to procure generators to minimise frequent outages.

Some people have had electrical appliances bought for thousands gone bad and unable to get compensation because the law does not allow for it. The smaller shops are finding it hard to store frozen items and this questions the health and safety of frozen foods. The health teams need to be ready to deal with this situation.

Businesses that rely on electricity are now looking at buying generators to keep operations going and those with generators are running them for half a day to ensure normal operations continue. What is it coming to? Instead of moving forward, we are moving backwards.

And now we learn that it may be months before power is normalised. Power rationing will be the new norm in the coming months. One of the main generators at the Fiaga power station is down because of the power overload.

The Taelefaga plant that has a two-megawatt generator is currently under maintenance and will be out for another two weeks reducing energy distribution for Upolu. In simple words, the Electric Power Corporation cannot meet the demand.

In response to the power crisis, EPC General Manager Faumui Iese Toimoana said the hiring of five generators from New Zealand is underway as a quick fix to the problem. EPC has leased five generators (one megawatt each) for $47,000 per week from New Zealand which will end up costing $1,128,000 for the six months rental term.

EPC is now procuring two new generators ( two megawatts each) for $5 million through the HNAC Technology company. The normal procurement process would take about nine months.

As for the damages to one of Fiaga’s generators, the generators don’t have ready-made parts and it has to be ordered before they can make it. Orders have been placed and this will take up to 10 to 12 months. EPC has agreed that the damages were due to a delay in maintenance.

And while this happens, there has been no word from the government and to make things worse the minister responsible is out of the country. The ruling party is still divided and fighting continues. The people are not fools, they want action from the government.

The nation is in a crisis. People need help, businesses that are impacted need financial assistance and the leader of the nation needs to address the situation. Fiame Naomi Mataafa can repeat whatever the EPC has said but people will be content that their leaders are talking to them during a national crisis.

The government had been told on numerous occasions starting more than two years ago that their sole focus on hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting would come at a cost. The government was time and time again reminded not to neglect infrastructure development and not to leave it to foreign aid. This is the cost we are paying. It is clear that maintenance had been delayed and there was no actual investment either from EPC or the government to improve existing infrastructure.

Policies and five-year-roadmaps are easy to produce and that is what has been done. However, there has been no real investment to upgrade existing infrastructure. The power outages are now impacting the water supply. The math is simple, as time goes by, the population will increase and with that development will increase. Increasing development such as new houses and industries requires more electricity. Surely, that has been factored in before but never acted upon.

Is it too late? It may be but if the government gets its act together, the people will understand that the power outages will be temporary and there is a brighter future. You cannot have people living in the dark. Everyone knows how important electricity is as infrastructure for growth. The continuing power outages will lead to social and economic decline.

Let’s hope there is a brighter future ahead.