How vandals paralysed healthcare
Vandalism of two towers on the Kapichira-Nchalo 132-kilovolt overhead line at Kasinthula in Chikwawa District illustrated how the malpractice disrupts vital services.
The collapse of the power transmission lines compromised health service delivery in the Shire Valley and stopped businesses.
Vandals cut off parts of the steel towers on the line that feeds Nsanje and Chikwawa
The line fell down on November 13 2023 around 3.40 pm, disrupting service provision in health centres, grocery shops, welding centres, butcheries, hair salons and barbershops in Nsanje and Chikwawa.
This left Nsanje District Hospital using diesel-powered generators to keep laboratories, mortuary and vaccination cold chain units running.
“This is not sustainable,” said Nsanje health promotion officer George Mbotwa. “The backup generator consumes 20 litres of diesel per hour.”
Diesel sells at K2 734 per litre, meaning the hospital generator consumes 400 litres of diesel worth K1 093 600 per day.
“Minus the resting period of every five hours for the generator, we use 100 litres in five hours. That is close to 400 litres per day. This puts a lot of stress on the fuel used to run ambulances,” said Mbotwa.
He said the hospital staff learnt with shock that the power outage in Nsanje occurred due to vandalism on the Kapichira-Nchalo transmission line.
He urged against vandalism, saying it affects innocent people.
Chikwawa District Hospital deputy health promotion officer Peter Nasoni said the facility had gone three days without stable electricity supply.
Pharmacy and X-ray sections were also affected.
“We also have challenges with our pharmacy. Chikwawa is very hot, so it is not easy for us to maintain room temperature. Another section affected is that of the X-ray,” he said before power was restored.
Some small-scale businesspersons at Chikwawa echoed similar concerns.
Robson Luka, a shopkeeper at Dyelatu, said: “When power goes off due to low voltage or vandalism, we cannot store fresh food such as milk in our refrigerators. Vandalism is counterproductive. Those who engage in such acts must stop,” Luka said.
Welder Paul Wandale said community members need to play their part in protecting Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) assets.
“Vandals must stop such acts because this affects our businesses. By extension, our families and our dependents,” Wandale said.
Escom director of transmission Masauko Mula said: “The affected line, essentially, supplies the whole Shire Valley; that is Chikwawa and Nsanje districts.
“In this case, all the facilities in this area have definitely been affected. We are talking about health and education facilities being affected.”
Escom swiftly restored power to the Shire Valley districts after installing a temporary diversion comprising wooden poles.
Mula estimated that Escom would spend about K200 million to re-install the damaged towers.
“The temporary diversion will be there until such a time we procure tower materials to construct a new line,” he said.
The outage affected vibrant trading centres such as Bangula, Ngabu, Sorgin, Nsanje Boma, Marka, Luwe, M’bang’ombe, Thabwa, Thekerani, Livunzu, Sankhulani and Chapananga up to Chikombe on the Mozambique Border.
In the past two years, Escom has sensitised people in Nsanje and other districts to the dangers of vandalism. However, the vice still persists largely due to unscrupulous scrap metal dealers who buy parts of the steel towers.
Last year, Escom reported widespread vandalism cases in the Southern Region, indicating that medium voltage cables were the most targeted. Thyolo, Blantyre, Zomba and Mulanje registered the most cases of vandalism.
Thyolo topped the list of the districts hit the hardest by vandalism after registering 34 transformer cases.
