By Mulenga Banda
Following disruptions of power generation, President Hakainde Hichilema of Zambia on Sunday
undertook visits to Maamba Collieries, and Kariba ZESCO power plants to fully appreciate the extent of the country’s electricity generation capacities.
At the Maamba Power station, the President held discussions with management of the power plant to understand their maintenance schedules, which have greatly contributed to the disruptions of power generation during times when water levels are low in the Kariba Dam.
He urged them to speed up the maintenance processes so that they could resume normal operations within the shortest possible time. Maintenance schedules, Hichilema said, should be planned in a manner that do not impede normal power generation on the national grid.
At Kariba Dam, the President noted that it was obvious that systems and processes had been neglected to the point where there was no proper monitoring, evaluation, and sharing, of critical information by different stakeholders at the right time.
The Kariba Dam is a shared asset between Zambia and our counterparts in Zimbabwe, run by the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA).
“We shall therefore be engaging our Zimbabwean counterparts to ensure optimization and effective use of this reservoir. We are told that it is evident that we need to enhance compliance levels in this facility in terms of water management.
“In order to mitigate the impact on small businesses, we have directed ZESCO to consider splitting the 12 hours of load shedding per area into a six-hourly schedule, so that they can maintain their operations.
“We shall not shy away from taking responsibility where challenges are being faced, as that is key to addressing them. And in addressing these problems, we shall not take politically convenient, populist routes; our decisions shall be based on building sound foundations that will last for generations to come.