Porto Novo, Dec 20 (Inforpress) – The Electricity and Water Company (Electra) has decided to stop supplying electricity to the agricultural water pumping system in Martiene, Porto Novo, Santo Antão, to the distress of local farmers.
Electra’s decision, which claims from the 40 farmers in Martiene to repay a debt of almost 400 thousand escudos, accumulated since 2016, puts at risk the potato crop in this area, one of the largest producers in Cape Verde, with a production about a thousand tons/year.
Producer spokesman Januário da Cruz told Inforpress that Electra decided to cut off electricity supply at the Escravoerinhos water pumping system at a time when the potato crop in that valley is “in full ” development”.
He warned that farmers are now “seriously at risk of losing almost anything, which would be a disaster” as it is a crop that is “the main living” of families in Martiene, one of the Santo Antão island’s main agricultural valleys. Farmers have been refusing to pay the debt to Electra because they consider that they have not consumed all the energy company says has been spent pumping water in the Ribeira de Escravoerinhos system, in Martiene.
JM/AA/HVF
Inforpress
