Executive Director for the Environmental and Educational Resources Development Trust (CCRDT) Olgha Saidi has called on government to engage Malawians for solutions aimed at resolving challenges the country is facing including the massive power outages.
Speaking of how the current power cuts have affected various businesses and individuals, Saidi said the nation has people who can help with ideas on effective Hydro-electric power generation, solar energy and windmill electricity production.
She also indicated that there is need to explore modern technologies that will help conserve water in the Shire River particularly at Nkula Falls to avoid reduction of generation capacity due to low water levels.
“There are a lot of Malawians with brilliant ideas but we are used to depending too much on ideas from people who do not even know our problems. The generators they are buying are temporary and the electricity interconnection programme they are talking about cannot be relied upon,” she said.
She bemoaned that as an organisation that empowers the youth and women to be self-reliant, they are greatly affected by the persistent power blackouts.
The nation is facing blackouts with both the Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) and the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) attributing the problem to low water levels in Lake Malawi and its sole outlet Shire River.
Egenco chief executive officer William Liabunya recently said the current prolonged blackouts will end in March next year when all diesel-powered generators, expected to generate 46 megawatts (MW), will have been commissioned.
Malawi has an installed capacity for electricity of 351MW, but of late it has fallen to 145MW, which is said to have led to the current power crisis.
