‘Electricity has changed my life’

Esnath Chatulukira’s life has improved since  April 25 this year when Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) connected her house to electricity under the Malawi Electricity Access Project (Meap) funded by the World Bank.

The single mother of two in Pasani Village, Traditional Authority Kapeni in Blantyre, now sees possibilities of venturing into a small-scale business.

With access to electricity on the outskirts of Lunzu Trading Centre, the 44-year-old feels that she is like “a normal citizen” like her neighbours and town dwellers.

“I have lots of business ideas, including buying a refrigerator to chill beverages for sale. Besides, my children can now study at night without worrying about smoky fumes from candles or paraffin lamps,” Esnath says.

Her neighbour Kelita Chatulukira feels equally lucky having been connected the same day.

Her family is no longer concerned about coughs caused by fumes from diesel-powered lamps.

“We were using diesel to light our home, yet we know that it is supposed to be used in cars. Our children were always struggling with coughs and flu, but now all that is history,” she explained.

Kelita has a message of hope to those on Meap waiting-list and intending to apply for access to electricity under the project which expires in June 2024. The initiative targets new connections and clearing backlog.

She explains: “My message to others who are desperate for electricity is that they should have hope. The steps we took were very simple: We filled an application form, Escom personnel came to inspect the wiring of our house, we paid [K93 200 for single phase] and now we have electricity,” she explains.

“I can assure you that we no longer have to rely on neighbours to recharge our phones and iron our clothes. Electricity changes lives and we feel like proper human beings.”

About 10 kilometres away from Kapeni, Farida Masi, a mother of five, breaks into tears of joy at the sight of Escom linespersons descending the hills and valleys of Gamulani on Ndirande Hill to connect her house in Blantyre’s populous township. She applied for a new connection in 2021, but had to wait two years for the connection.

She vows to use electricity sparingly, just for lighting the house.

 “We have been in the dark for a long time, so I am very happy that we now have electricity. I applied for electricity in 2021. Electricity will help us with light. We won’t use it for ironing clothes or using an electric cooker,” she said.

According to Meap  manager MacDivings Longwe, the three are among the 180 000 new single-phase households that Escom hopes to connect across the country.

The project seeks to clear the backlog and provide new connections targeting low-income households located within 500 metres of existing Escom distribution transformers.

He explained: “This project, generally, the objective is to accelerate connections of electricity to our customers. We appreciate the Government of Malawi. What they did was that they got a loan from the World Bank. The loan has off-the-grid and on-the-grid components.

“The off-the-grid component is being implemented by the Ministry of Energy and Escom is handling the on-the-grid part. The on-the-grid part is worth $65 million. The target is to connect 180 000 customers by June 30 2024.”

The project was launched in December 2022, but only rolled out connections in February this year due to logistical and procurement arrangements.

“I am happy 23 000 customers have been connected. We started very lean  at the end of February and ramped up on 1st May. You will see that in nine weeks, we connected 10 000 households but when vehicles were hired, within five weeks we have connected about 12 000.”

The project targets single-phase households in line with the government’s bid to increase electricity access in the country. It seeks to connect 83 000 customers by December 2023 and 180 000 by June 2024.

Customers can kick-start the process of applying for connections under the project alternatively called Sesa. The application forms are available at the nearest Escom office and Escom website.

Currently, only an estimated 12 percent of households in Malawi have access to grid power supplied by Escom; hence, the push to increase the number in line with Vision 2063.