Malawi and Zambia see sharing as key to dealing with electricity shortages

The governments of Malawi and Zambia say they will facilitate more power sharing projects between their power utilities in order to deal with power shortages, which are threatening economic growth in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region.

The Electricity Supply Corpora-tion of Malawi (Escom) and the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (Zesco) already have two power sharing projects in place.

The first, commissioned in 2004, involves Escom supplying power to Zambia’s Lundazi district, while the second, which was commissioned late last month, entails Escom supplying electricity to Zambia’s Chama district.

“I wish to inform that Malawi has the capacity to generate addi- tional hydroelectricity to the tune of 1 500 MW and we are ready to share that power with Zambia,” said Malawi’s President Bingu wa Mutharika at the commissioning of the project to supply power to Chama, late last month.

The event was also attended by Zambia’s President Levy Mwana-wasa.

Wa Mutharika said Malawi was eager to facilitate more cross-boarder electrification projects with Zambia and other neighbouring countries because “such ventures are important for socioeconomic development in the region”.

“The power that our countries derive from these cross-boarder power sharing ventures drives industries and new businesses.”

He added that he hoped that the power-sharing deals with Zambia would complement his government’s efforts to ensure that Malawi’s remote areas were electrified under the multimillion-dollar Malawi Rural Electrification Programme.

Mwanawasa commented that his government was ready to facilitate the implementation of more power- sharing ventures because they were an important way to deal with the power shortages that the whole SADC region was facing.
“If the power shortages rocking Zambia and the whole SADC region are not urgently addressed through the prompt implementation of new generation and transmission projects, the economies of Zambia and the SADC will be constrained,” he said.

His government had shelved plans to privatise Zesco because it felt the move would hamper its plans to ensure the electrification of rural areas, he added.

Malawi’s Energy and Mines Minister, Ted Kalebe, said Malawi was happy to be taking part in the development of Zambia by exporting power to Chama and Lundazi, and Zesco board chairperson Wamundila Mlowokela commented that the development was important in regional integration.

Malawi is pursuing a project to start importing electricity from Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa hydroelectric power scheme.

The World Bank has already approved loans to both Malawi and Mozambique for the project, but the Malawian Parliament is yet to pass a Bill to authorise government to acquire the funds, owing to the prevailing wrangles between the opposition and government benches over an antidefection law, which is affecting progress in Parliament.
Wa Mutharika, who ditched the United Democratic Front (UDF) to form his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), risks losing a majority of Members of Parliament who followed him from the UDF to the DPP, if the antidefection law is implemented.