Kandeh yumkella biography of michael
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Kandeh Yumkella: COVID Has Helped People Understand the Vital Connection Between Energy and Health.
As you are the member of Parliament for Kambia in the northwest of Sierra Leone, tell us how this part of the country has been hit by the COVID pandemic and how it has managed to cope over the last 12 months.
When COVID started we were really scared in the northwest, in Kambia and its region. The fact is that our neighbour, Guinea, and its capital Conakry had large COVID numbers even before we had the first case in Sierra Leone. We were concerned for two reasons. Kambia is one of the closest points to Guinea and is only hours from Conakry. It’s the main crossing point between Sierra Leone and Guinea. So, our proximity to Guinea scared the hell out of us. Second, we remembered our bad Ebola experience which we inherited from Guinea, which made us panic further.
As Member of Parliament for the Kambia region, I and my MP colleagues started quickly with a programme of sensitization, even before the first case was logged in Sierra Leone. My constituency, in particular, is very porous. We have over 40 crossing points into Guinea and a lot of them are no more than bush paths. We had to set up youth groups to help control the crossing points and, despite the worry, we did no
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Dr. Kandeh K. Yumkella's Post
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Sierra Leone’s Kandeh Yumkella of the Sustainable Energy For All Initiative, Johannesburg’s City Power, George Airport and Akon Lighting are just some of the exciting and pioneering power and water professionals, utilities and projects that were winners in this year’s African Utility Week Industry Awards. Uganda’s NWSC won the coveted water utility of the year award for the second year in a row.
The winners of these prestigious industry awards in 11 different categories were announced at the gala dinner that took place on Wednesday evening, 18 May, during the annual African Utility Week and Clean Power Africa at the CTICC in Cape Town. More than power and water professionals have so far gathered in Cape Town for the event which ends on Thursday, 19 May.
Mr Kandeh Yumkella, UN Under-Secretary-General and Former Special Representative of the Secretary-General and CEO, Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All), won the Lifetime Achievement Award. He was also an inspired keynote speaker on the opening day of African Utility Week on Tuesday. On receiving his award last night Mr Yumkella said: “I know the energy revolution is powering up and ready to take off. We saw again this week that we have the technology and the innovation. Sometimes we are too suspicious of each other, we