SHANE SU­PERVILLE

Se­nior Re­porter

shane.su­perville@guardian.co.tt

Min­is­ter of Pub­lic Util­i­ties Bar­ry Padarath has dis­missed stereo­types of “un­pro­duc­tive” pub­lic ser­vants while com­mend­ing a con­tin­gent of 25 T&T Elec­tric­i­ty Com­mis­sion (T&TEC) work­ers for vol­un­teer­ing to join a mu­tu­al aid team de­ployed to Ja­maica to as­sist with re­cov­ery ef­forts fol­low­ing Hur­ri­cane Melis­sa.

The team, com­pris­ing lines­men and tech­ni­cians, de­part­ed T&T yes­ter­day.

Padarath re­port­ed that ex­pens­es for send­ing the team as part of re­lief op­er­a­tions amount­ed to an es­ti­mat­ed $2.24 mil­lion.

Speak­ing at a me­dia brief­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Lounge of Pi­ar­co In­ter­na­tion­al Air­port, Padarath said T&T’s as­sis­tance was nec­es­sary, as rough­ly 55 per cent of Ja­maica re­mained with­out elec­tric­i­ty.

He praised the work­ers’ will­ing­ness to par­tic­i­pate, high­light­ing their work eth­ic and ded­i­ca­tion.

“Far too of­ten, pub­lic ser­vants car­ry the stig­ma of not be­ing pro­duc­tive,” Padarath said. “This is a stig­ma be­cause when you leave the com­fort of your homes and na­tion to pro­vide an es­sen­tial ser­vice to an­oth­er coun­try, it is a sac­ri­fice. From a very grate­ful na­tion of T&T and of Ja­maica, do us proud, be safe, and come back to us, be­cause T&TEC and the na­tion need you.”

Padarath said the work­ers would play a crit­i­cal role in co­or­di­nat­ing with re­gion­al au­thor­i­ties to re­store elec­tric­i­ty and pro­vide hope to thou­sands liv­ing un­der ex­treme con­di­tions.

In ad­di­tion to man­pow­er, five T&TEC util­i­ty trucks were dis­patched and ex­pect­ed to ar­rive on the is­land, short­ly af­ter the team, to as­sist with restora­tion ac­tiv­i­ties. The Gov­ern­ment is al­so li­ais­ing close­ly with the Ja­maican High Com­mis­sion in T&T and T&T’s en­voy to Ja­maica, Deb­o­rah Thomas-Fe­lix, who trav­elled with the team.

Padarath not­ed that, ac­cord­ing to Ja­maica’s For­eign Min­is­ter, most su­per­mar­ket shelves were emp­ty. Part­ner­ships be­tween the Gov­ern­ment and pri­vate sec­tor are work­ing to send aid, in­clud­ing ship­ping con­tain­ers of do­nat­ed food.

“The in­jec­tion of $2.24 mil­lion is mon­ey well spent, par­tic­u­lar­ly at a time when it will im­pact the lives of our Ja­maican broth­ers and sis­ters,” Padarath said. “This is a mo­ment that will de­fine us not in terms of dol­lars, but in our hu­man­i­ty and sol­i­dar­i­ty.”

Al­so speak­ing at the brief­ing, act­ing T&TEC Gen­er­al Man­ag­er Vi­jai Ram­nanans­ingh ex­pressed con­fi­dence in the tech­ni­cians’ abil­i­ty to re­store pow­er de­spite the se­vere dam­age on the is­land.

“I have two di­rec­tives: work safe­ly, fol­low­ing all rules, pro­ce­dures, and stan­dards of op­er­a­tion; and, most im­por­tant­ly, be your broth­er’s keep­er. As­sist each oth­er, work with each oth­er, and take care of each oth­er,” Ram­nanans­ingh said. “We know how chal­leng­ing ac­com­mo­da­tions and re­cov­ery work can be, so look out for one an­oth­er.”

Ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of the Caribbean Util­i­ty Ser­vices Cor­po­ra­tion (CAR­ILEC), Dr Cle­tus Bertin, said the or­gan­i­sa­tion has co­or­di­nat­ed with tech­ni­cal teams across the Caribbean, with 159 line work­ers com­mit­ted to help­ing Ja­maica. He not­ed that T&T has pro­vid­ed the largest con­tin­gent of work­ers so far.