The Minister of Energy and Water Resources Professor Ogunlade Davidson has refuted rumours making the rounds that light from Bumbuna phase one will not be possible this year describing such pessimists as backward thinkers and not well meaning Sierra Leoneans, while declaring that phase one is already completed while the Government will soon target phase two.

The technocrat, who was confidently updating members of the fourth estate at the weekly press conference at the Ministry of Information and Communication conference room last week Thursday, said that he was disappointed over what he calls, "cooked up stories about the status of Bumbuna".

"As far as we are concerned at the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources and the Government in general, Bumbuna phase one is completed with the water level of the dam being at the highest level that it had ever been for the past ten years," Professor Ogunlade disclosed.

The dam, he went further, has been in good condition ever since and that the engineers have not detected any threat or damage, neither a collapse in any of the turbines  as was erroneously reported by some media outlets and that at the moment the testing of the facility is ongoing.

"Power from Bumbuna has been transmitted safely to Kingtom Power station", the Energy and Water Resources Minister informed journalists and continued, "reliability tests are aimed at assessing whether the energy that will be coming from Bumbuna is reliable since when the power will be ultimately switched on to the general public it is expected to serve consumers at an affordable cost and secured manner".

The Ministry, he said, cannot be in haste to supply such an essential service without proving its reliability.  

 An  other test that is on going which has caused the delay in switching on Bumbuna phase one is what he called LOAD TESTING this he said is aimed at testing the capacity of the transmission lines to carry current from the Dam site to Freetown, according to Professor Ogunlade Davidson.

"Government's target is one that is aimed at meeting the 1000 Mega Watts of electricity that is desperately needed to solve the unreliable power supply nationwide in order to create the needed investment climate for the country". The Energy Minister further intimated journalists during past Thursday's press briefing.

He expressed the Ministry's determination to meet this clarion call in the Government's agenda for change programme, noting that the APC Government is here to govern and meet the needs of the electorates.

Dilating on the relocation of affected property owners under the Bumbuna high tension cables, Professor Davidson said the programme has been very much successful revealing that one of the oldest Churches at Charlotte village and some houses would be exempted due to some mechanisms that have been put in place by the Ministry.