UN General Assembly
1981

234. I should like now to indicate how poverty places a heavy burden on poor States and how the poor become poorer because there is no surplus wealth to generate development of their country. In Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, electricity is generated by diesel and hydro power. In 1980, 10,020,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity were generated from hydro-power, at a cost of 336,000 East Caribbean dollars. In the same year, 15,734,000 kilowatt-hours of diesel-powered electricity were generated at a cost of 4,106,000 East Caribbean dollars. It cost 3,770,000 East Caribbean dollars per annum more to generate 5,714,000 kilowatts of power from diesel fuel. It is this type of arithmetic which we cannot connect on our own and which crushes us into helplessness, making the poor poorer. Someone has to carry this very big differential in generating costs, and it is the consumer who does so.