By Ousman Jammeh
Nfansu Bojang, director general of Gambia Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has welcomed the launch of the renewable energy project saying it will help his institution in reducing air pollution.
The project seeks to mitigate the impact of climate change in The Gambia.
Speaking exclusively to The Voice Newspaper on Monday, Mr. Bojang expressed that they are highly dependent on electricity as an institution “but civil aviation as an industry we are one of the biggest contributors of emission of CO2 and pollution of the environment. So, going green is one of the favorite things for our industry. Therefore, to have such a project coming to our airport couldn’t be more timely than now.”
He further expressed delight saying “We are excited and [we are] looking forward to it. I think when we have this it will resource our contribution to pollution, but more importantly, it will enhance our efficiency in terms of productivity,” he added.
According to him, the national green is not in the best of shape saying “there is lots of fluctuation and that means the high operational cost for us.”
He added that as an airport they are required to have guaranteed electricity 24 hours a day without national green and they are required to have a backup system that they are obliged to turn on between 11 to 15 seconds. “So, this concern down age has a huge operational cost,” he said.
“First, we have to operate our machines which are huge machines on heavy fuel and we have to have trained personnel in those equipment 24 hours a day and constant running of them also increases maintenance.
“We have to buy spares, we have to buy oil and we have to do this and a lot of this, and therefore to have renewable energy which is not only efficient, but it is more cost-effective will create a lot of savings for us,” he explained.
