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APM pleads for patience on electricity woes

President Arthur Peter Mutharika has appealed for patience on the electricity woes the country is currently facing.

Mutharika was speaking when he “stormed” in a meeting of senior Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) and Electricity Generation Company officials in the morning hours today at Umoyo House in Blantyre.

Mutharika said that his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) led government has put the electricity woes as a priority and gave assurance that the problem will hopefully be minimized by next year as there are solutions that the two companies are putting in place to help the country both in the short term, medium term and long term.

“I am obviously concerned about the power problems we are having in this country because without power we cannot transform this country. Investors cannot come because there is no power, so power is very crucial and we have put it as a priority. I know that the blackouts are very painful, they are hurting people and businesses and so on and so forth, and I know what the country is going through,” Mutharika said.

Mutharika further stressed that the problem lies on the fact that as a country, we have never invested in the energy sector all these years hence this is the first time the country will be investing in the sector.

In his remarks, Egenco chief executive officer William Liabunya reiterated the company’s stand that the low water levels in Lake Malawi and the Shire River have negatively impacted on the country’s generation capacity.

He said: “This year and last year have been the worst as the water levels have been decreasing sharply but with some of our short term and long term solutions, we are hopeful that by the end of this year there will be improvement.”

Escom chief executive officer Evelyn Mwapasa also said that the current generation capacity is less as demand is 300 megawatts while its sister company Egenco, is producing a total of 160 megawatts.

 

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2 Comments

  1. This dude is just wasting tax payers money he visited ESCOM just to show the public that he is concerned.

    Does a president really need to go in person to ESCOM to find out the reasons why his presidential term has been full of blackouts? What were his battalion of advisers doing?

    Which is cheaper for him to call the ESCOM executive to state house or for him and his hundred strong entourage to visit ESCOM offices just to score a political point.

    Mr president, if indeed you have the plight of the economy of our country at heart please stop this politically motivated Malata & Cement subsidy which is costing the tax payers billions of Kwachas which will never be recovered and invest that money in power generation…..

    If power generation was a priority for your govt, then why did you borrow billions of dollars from India in form of farming machinery that ended up being distributed for peanuts amongst the well-connected
    people in your govt. The sad thing is that it is the children of the poor Malawians who will have to repay that loan when you and you fellow henchmen are long gone.

    Malawi is a laughing stock to the outside world becoz of our useless, myopic, nepotistic,
    and senile leaders who are always ushered into office due to the regionalistic politics that our country suffers from – Thanks to the overpopulated southern region.
    Ndatha Ine Yanu Mbonga

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