ESCOM warns of more blackouts: Electricity generation capacity reduced by 165 Megawatts

Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) has warned Malawians to brace for more blackouts ahead raising pressure among business players in the country.

This was disclosed in statement issued on Monday made available to faceofMalawi, saying that at the moment hydro-electric power generation capacity has gone down by 165 Megawatts from 351 Megawatts, representing a 67 percent drop.

The state owned company has attributed the challenge to continued lowering of water levers on Lake Malawi which has hit the lowest mark in history.

“There will be enormous operating difficultites in the months of Sepetember to December. Lake levels will drop by early December and we will only be able to generate 135 megawarrs (MW). Load shedding is likely to increase in the months,” said ESCOM chief executive officer John Kandulu.

Kandulu said the body has no immediate solutions to the challenge at hand.

Of late, the country has experienced power outages frequently and many Malawians have complained of the challenge and even others took the issue to social media especially Facebook.

Many people questioned why the problem was not there during the reign of Dr. Joyce Banda and opposition Peoples Party (PP).

Anthony Foloko Msukwa wrote: “we are much affected in terms of many operations. for example all people who operate small businesses but with no power back up are making a lot of losses which means government too is making a lot of loses in terms of tax income. The solution to this problem is that the government officials should consider why the same problem was not there during the regime of Joyce Banda.

“There was a change of these problems, power interruption and recurrent out-gates of water which were their during the Bingu’s regime. Using this assumption i would say some top official on these statutory cooperation are sabotaging the government operations for their personal interest. Hence personally i would consider to change the position of the top management team because are the ones who are failing to perform their duties, in short they, i could say they are failing to find a solution to the problem which is at hand.”

Another person identified as Michael Thomas Wemba wrote: “ i don’t know what escom personnel is doing, they said that because of water shortages they have bought generators which will help to supply more power and will be planted in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu, where are these generators? Escom should be out of politics!”

Meanwhile Centre for the Development of People (Cedep) executive director Gift Trapence has said Malawi is slowly turning to a failed state.