Over two years ago, I needed to find an apartment closer to town. I learned just how difficult the search for affordable apartments closer to town was as it took several months before I even found an apartment that met my criteria.
It needed to be no more than a 30-minute drive to Central Monrovia. It also needed to have a fence, a place to park two vehicles, and access to running water and electricity.
Unfortunately, in a rush to secure the apartment, I didn’t verify all the claims of the apartment’s owner. There was, in fact, no access to electricity provided by the Liberia Electricity Corporation. LEC had not reached Old Road’s Chugbor community yet and while there was a promise that the grid would eventually be extended there, officials provided no timeline.
Fearful that I would demand my money back, the owner gave me two options – community electricity from a supplier across the street or electricity from an unknown source provided by a guy he knew.
I was desperate to move closer to town and I took him on his offer and talked to his connect. The more details I learned, the more I realized that my supplier was dealing in illegal connections to the grid. But, what other reasonable options did I have? So I went along.
During the three months I interacted with him, I experienced levels of frustrations that shouldn’t be associated with getting something as basic as electricity.
The power was unregulated and damaged my appliances. My supplier sold the electricity via a monthly price per amp (I was paying US$150 at US$50 per amp), and I wasn’t sure whether I was getting the proper amount, as I didn’t have an amp meter on hand.
After storms, I could not count on him to restore power and his connections were so flimsy that even mild winds caused intermittent power outages.
There was so much uncertainty in dealing with this supplier. Once, I returned home to see some of my wires had been stolen. I suspected he stole the wire because he knew I would be jammed and that I would be forced to buy some more. However, I really had no recourse.
My supplier could cut the electricity supply anytime without us knowing whether the issue was really due to an outage or otherwise. Whenever there were power outages, I would often frantically call a friend who lived near the supplier to see if he had power.
And then there was always the threat that I could lose money I paid if LEC ever discovered his activities.
Despite these issues and the threats, receiving power this way was way cheaper than any other option I had. It was equivalent in cost to the community current, but unlike community current, it was available throughout the day (I never got the idea of only having power available at night, when I couldn’t use it). It was also significantly cheaper than running my own generator. As much as I felt that I was robbing LEC of necessary revenues, I could not help but feel like I had no options.
It felt as if LEC was contributing to the prevalence of illegal connections by not speeding up its connection of communities. Even in communities where the grid was now available, LEC wasn’t doing a good enough job of connecting new customers fast enough. Some customers who tried to go through the official process of connecting have waited for years at a time, as documented in a Bush Chicken report. They may find that it’s much faster to get an illegal connection. Worst of all, I later discovered that my supplier was an employee of LEC.
Ask around and you’ll find that many people have a story of getting illegally connected, including even top government officials who have told me they did the same when faced with few options.
My experience, and that of all others I’ve talked to about illegal connections, suggests that LEC’s best weapon against power theft is to speed up connecting new customers by streamlining its customer service operations. Very few people want to deal with the illegal suppliers because of the many issues I described above, but if they feel squeezed and faced with no affordable options, I can’t blame them for going the illegal route.
Featured photo by Jefferson Krua
