WRITING last month in the Diplomaticourier.com, the global affairs media network that connects global publics to leaders in international affairs, diplomacy, social good and more, Uju Okoye highlighted the energy crisis in Africa.
“Across Africa, many countries are dependent on hydropower to meet their energy needs. Although millions of people still remain off the electrical power grid – in Lesotho, for example, only 21 percent have access to electricity, and some 22 percent in Zambia – the drought has dramatically affected power generation for domestic use as governments struggle to keep the lights on for industrial customers,” he wrote.
“That leaves South Africans, Zimbabweans and others cut off for up to 16 hours a day. Worse, Tswanas marched through the streets of Gaborone earlier in September, demanding the resumption of steady water and electricity supplies, even if officials don’t expect to see them remedied before 2017, as its aging infrastructure needs urgent upgrades.
There’s even a technical term for the selective blackouts that governments have resorted to in their struggles to cope with soaring demand and under-investment: load-shedding. This is a last ditch option to prevent the entire grid from collapsing, by selectively shutting down supply to different parts of the distributions region.
“In Zambia, that creates a circular, Kafkaesque scenario: low water levels lead to load-shedding, which cuts off power from the pumps ensuring clean water to homes and businesses in Lusaka. In South Africa, load-shedding translates to 100 days without power throughout the year.
“It feeds into the economy and leads to shortages of other commodities like LPG [liquefied petroleum gas] canisters, increased fire and sanitation risks, job cuts, and crippling industry shutdowns that compromise future growth and discourage foreign investment. “These economic impacts in turn make it harder to buy food, cause drought-related refugees, and raise fears of social unrest – all consequences and patterns anticipated by climate change experts.”
The energy crisis is indeed being felt by everyone in the region.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) a few days ago reported on how all hydropower plants in Tanzania are being switched off because of the lack of rain that has led to low water levels in the country’s dams.
It reported that hydro-electricity generation has fallen to 20 percent of capacity, making it difficult for the dams to operate. It is the first time the East African nation has closed all hydropower plants, which generate 35 percent of its electricity.
The electricity challenge is indeed being felt everywhere.
“I haven’t been paying my DStv subscription for the past three months because of load-shedding. It doesn’t make sense for me to pay when most of my family members are not around at home when we’re not load-shedded. The time most of us are home, that’s the time they load-shed, so I just resolved not to pay because it’s a waste of money,” Christopher Kalaluka, a resident of Makeni in Lusaka, says.
Everyone in the country is feeling the effects of load-shedding.
Only recently, when the Zambia national football team hosted Gabon in an international friendly match at Heroes National Stadium in Lusaka where President Lungu was in attendance, there were two power interruptions.
When opening Parliament recently, President Lungu outlined some of the measures that Government is taking both in the short and long term to address the power crisis in the country.
The long term response includes partnering with Zimbabwe for the possibility of developing a 1,800 megawatt power station at Batoka Gorge by 2019, which will be an addition to the 750 megawatt Kafue Lower hydropower plant, which is set to be completed by 2018.
Other power projects include increasing the capacity of Chishimba Falls in Kasama in Northern Province and Musonda Falls, which is about 60 kilometres north of Mansa in Luapula Province, as well as the Lusiwasi hydropower project in Serenje in Central Province.
The commissioning of the coal-fired power station at Maamba Collieries and the Itezhi-tezhi hydropower station in Southern Province are also on the cards.
The Maamba Collieries and Itezhi-tezhi projects are set to contribute about 420 megawatts to the national grid by January 2016.
Other than this, there is also the rehabilitation of old power stations and the implementation of a solar-based renewable energy programme while pursuing the development and implementation of alternative energy resources, including natural gas, thermal, wind and bio-mass.
The daily power deficit is estimated at between 600 and 700 megawatts, which has weighed heavily on the business sector and individuals as well as the overall economic growth.
“… Climate change has become a reality and is affecting our day-to-day lives. It affected the timing, distribution and amounts of rainfall last season that adversely affected our agricultural sector and weakened our capacity to generate sufficient electric power,” Minister of Finance Alexander Chikwanda said when he presented the 2016 national budget to Parliament in Lusaka last Friday.
“With the development of a strong El Niño, a weather pattern which generally results in lower rains in southern Africa, and continued economic restructuring in China, these challenges are expected to remain with us as we enter 2016.
“Indeed, new challenges are anticipated, such as higher interest rates on dollar denominated loans as the United States Federal Reserve Bank system ends its cheap money programme known as quantitative easing.
“I want to assure the nation, through this August House, that the Patriotic Front government is fully committed and resolved to meet these challenges. Over the last four years, we have built a firm foundation to sustain broad-based and inclusive growth, diversify and deepen the resilience of our economy and further entrench social justice so that all Zambians, of every age and gender, and from all parts of Zambia, benefit from the nation’s development path.”
Dr Lawrence Mukuka, former lecturer at the University of Zambia from 1991 to 2004 and now a motivational mentor and social development specialist consultant, has some recommendations on how to overcome the country’s current electricity challenge.
Firstly, as short-term measures, he feels that authorities should take electricity (rationing) from some rural areas and other less productive places to the mines to keep them running normally at all costs to generate the much-needed revenue and stabilise the employment situation.
He also proposes the procurement of supplementary electricity, on an emergency basis only, from anywhere in the world through mobile generators as well as the creation of a National Electricity Supply Commission, consisting of the country’s brightest men and women to look into long term solutions to the electricity challenge in the country in view of climate change and global warming.
Dr Mukuka also wants studies commissioned to examine major improvements in energy production in the country and the provision to the private energy sector subsidies and tax incentives in equipment procurement for electricity production from coal, solar, water and wind energy.
For the medium to long term measures, he proposes that investments in electricity production from coal, solar energy farms and other water bodies should be scattered around the country.
Further, Dr Mukuka suggests that there should be exploration of the feasibility of linking the Kafue River to Lake Kariba by a tunnel under the Zambezi Escarpment to normalise the water levels at Lake Kariba while still running the Kafue hydroelectric power station.
For Dr Mukuka, the inspiration comes from former President Kenneth Kaunda’s inaugural speech when he was being sworn in as the first President of Zambia on October 24, 1964.
He quotes: “I am very much aware of the trials and troubles that beset us; but we will face them with courage and determination not only to conquer them, but also to profit by our experience. For we do not shout from the rooftops that we are great, rather we realise that now we must work to prove our right to greatness.” – (Daily Mail)
BY KELVIN KACHINGWE
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