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Hurray, no blackout on Christmas!

Honourable Folks, spending more than two weeks, including Christmas and New Year, without experiencing a minute of power outage either due to load shedding or technical fault feels different.

Thanks to Escom for enabling us to enter 2014 without having to feel our way in darkness as was the case in much of 2013 and before.  Hope this is here to stay.

Some of us in Blantyre saw trucks bringing in huge machines (some say from China) the other day. We’re told with those machines, Escom has now increased its power generating capacity.  I understand the gains will be consolidated and improved on with a Millennium Challenge Account worth billions of kwacha from the US. All it takes is for the government to adhere to the tenets of good political and economic governance and avoid, at all cost, a repeat of cashgate.

On Escom website, there’s also talk about increasing capacity through what it calls the Mozambique Interconnection Project.  This could probably be the same project we heard about when the late Bingu wa Mutharika was at the helm.

It’s not clear when it will be implemented—another government may abandon the project altogether as has been the case with development projects in past–but should the interconnectivity happen, power supply is likely to improve significantly and blackouts are likely to decrease significantly as well.

But I’m reliably informed both the Mozambique Interconnection Project and the US grant may not happen if Escom is not given the go-ahead to hike electricity tariffs by 58 percent in the next four years. Washington requires, as one of the “conditionalities” for its grant, the sale of electricity at a rate that recovers its production, distribution and other costs (including inefficiency?) as well.

On its part, the Mozambique Interconnection Project, I’m reliably informed, will supply electricity at a rate that’s already much higher than Escom’s retail price. Unless, government—which already prepared us to brace for a life without subsidies—can absorb the extra costs, the feasibility of the project becomes questionable unless the burden of hiked tariffs is shoved down our throats.

The dilemma we are facing here is having a steady supply of electricity against our ability as a nation to pay for it. Escom and Mera, through the public hearings on Escom’s tariff hike proposal, are well aware that both domestic and industrial users of electricity are vehemently opposed to the hikes. They rightly argue that they are way too high for the economy.

Business captains fear the proposed tariffs will render their products highly uncompetitive on the market. On their part, domestic consumers fear that if Escom gets its way, many people who are on its grid won’t afford the bills and Malawi will glide back to the Dark Ages in the 21st century.

Already, only less than 10 percent of the population is connected, a low rate even by Sadc standards. There’s undeniably a compelling case for significantly increasing the number of households that depends on electricity for their energy needs.  Which modern economy is powered by cow dung?

But even our own survival as a nation depends on increased use of electricity. Otherwise, what becomes of deforestation if electricity becomes the luxury of the rich?  The question is: do those in government and their colleagues from the donor side see what Malawian taxpayers see in Escom’s tariff proposal?  Do they see the same development they champion being threatened by their dehumanising policies?

Forgive my outburst, but it’s my conviction that Escom’s proposed rate hikes resonate with government policy as articulated by former Finance inister Dr Ken Lipenga when presenting the 2013/14 national Budget to wean us from the so-called government subsidies. It’s a policy fully supported by donors.

It’s also my conviction that when the so-called public consultations are over, the Malawi Regulatory Authority (Mera), as an agent of the government, will find a way of giving Escom the go-ahead to skin us, whether we like it or not.  The argument will simply be how else can electricity be made available if we can’t pay for it?

What donors won’t say is their belief that if you can use electricity then you are too rich to be their concern.

And in all this, government won’t ask why the provision of hydro-electric power from our own God-given Shire River, which draws from our own God-given Lake Malawi, is declining in quantity and quality while becoming more and more expensive by the day.  It should be ashamed for passing on the cost of 50 years of gross inefficiency to its people.

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