outer atoll in this watery country of tiny coral islands scattered across 500,000 square miles of water: 24-hour electricity.Reliable power prompted the government’s telecommunications company to extend Internet and cell phone services to Jaluit last year.
The Bank of Marshall Islands quickly followed by opening its first outer islands full-service branch, offering micro loans, regular loans, wire transfers and other banking options all services unheard of on remote islands where people fish for food and make copra (dried coconut meat) to produce oil to earn a few dollars to buy bare necessities such as kerosene, rice and fishing equipment.
But last week Jaluit’s ascent into the 21st century suddenly reversed direction when the power company imposed electricity rationing in response to skyrocketing fuel costs, and like dominoes, the cascade effect on business was quick.
Businesses reported losses in frozen goods, cell phone and Internet services were immediately disconnected, and bank services were suspended.
Power was cut to just 10 hours daily, from 6-10 a.m. and 4-10 p.m. Telecom officials said they were forced to disconnect their transmitting equipment to avoid the risk of damage.
Marshalls Energy Company manager Steve Wakefield said the price of diesel from its local supplier leaped from $5.13 per gallon to $6.97 virtually overnight. The problem is that the utility company’s operations at Jaluit have historically been subsidized by its larger Majuro operation, since the level of business on this small island can’t sustain a diesel-fired plant.
With the increase in fuel price, “Jaluit’s monthly fuel bill is running at about $60,000, with collections from local residents, businesses and Jaluit High School amounting to less than half this amount losses that the utility cannot maintain,” Wakefield said.
The power company has relied on its fuel supplier’s tanks because it has little storage capacity of its own.
Wakefield said the utility can deliver its own fuel to Jaluit much less expensively than the nearly $7 per gallon offered by ALRO Co., a local firm that is supplied by ExxonMobil from Guam.
The Marshalls Energy Company is responding to the problem by expanding its own storage tank capacity, and hopes that 24-hour power can be restored once the tanks are installed, Wakefield said.
Since the early 1990s, the Marshalls Energy Company has in addition to supplying Majuro’s population of 25,000 with power provided Jaluit’s 1,000 islanders with electricity. Fewer than five of the more than 70 inhabited islands in this western Pacific nation have full-time power.
But with a public high school that serves many neighboring atolls and history on its side, Jaluit had enjoyed conveniences that most small islands in the Pacific lack. Until last week.
Jaluit business people said they are now scrambling to get generators down to Jaluit to power their freezers and refrigerators around the clock.
Victor Milne, who operates retail stores in both Majuro and Jaluit, described these problems as pushing Jaluit “backward to the 19th century.”
A key bank service halted in the wake of the p
ower rationing is wire transfers. Bank officials report that in the past year, an increasing amount of money from Marshall Islanders living in the United States is being transferred to relatives on Jaluit because, for the first time, they have a secure way to get money there.
To get money to other outer islands, cash must be hand-carried on boats or planes.
Bank of Marshall Islands president Patrick Chen said the bank will resume this Monday to offer limited banking services every other week by flying a staff person from Majuro on Air Marshall Islands planes on alternating Mondays.
Bank services will be provided until the return flight the same Friday, he said.
But even this plan could be challenged by the government-owned airline that has only recently resumed service with one of two planes after being out of commission for more than seven months.
“It will be difficult for the bank to provide these services without the benefit of Internet access for the computers,” Chen said. “But we’ll do it through radio.”
He is hopeful the current situation will be temporary and once power is back to normal on Jaluit, the bank can reopen on a full-time basis.
