adminAbel Zhakata Senior Reporter
THE Zambian Rural Electrification Authority is impressed by the rate at which the Rural Electrification Agency is providing power to rural communities in Zimbabwe as well as the mushrooming of mini hydro-electricity power stations that are set to empower villages.
Speaking at a meeting with Manicaland Provincial Administrator Mr Fungai Mbetsa in Mutare on Wednesday, chairman of Zambia’s REA, Professor Jorry Mwenechanya said his country would draw lessons from the successes achieved to date by Zimbabwe in availing electricity to villagers as well as setting up mini hydro-electricity plants.
“We have similarities in the way you are doing your projects here in Zimbabwe, but you are ahead of us. In fact, we are half way of what you have achieved to date. We were impressed when we visited the power station at Chipendeke. The villagers there showed that they are heavily involved in the project and they fully understood what was going on.
“We want to have knowledge of the community based management model you are using because the level of ownership by the community is high and encouraging. The people have a very good understanding of the mini hydro project. I believe if they are made to sell some of the electricity they are generating to Zesa, it would help them to develop their lives in a big way,” he said.
Mr Mbetsa, who is also a board member of REA, said Government was committed to availing electricity to rural communities as this empowers them.
He said Manicaland was among the leading provinces in the country with the highest coverage in terms of rural electrification.
“Currently we have a backlog of more than 1 000 household groups who want to be connected to the national grid. In the past, we used to have challenges in accessing materials like gum poles for transmitting purposes, but REA has since invested in a company that is now producing 100 000 treated poles per year. In Zimbabwe, we only require about 30 000 to carry out our rural electrification programmes which means that the remaining 70 000 can be sold elsewhere.”
Mr Mbetsa said private companies were also getting involved in setting up mini hydro-electricity plants like what Nyanga Renewable Energy was doing in the Eastern Highlands.
“These mini hydro-electricity plants will help develop communities. Currently the one in Nyanga is producing more than four megawatts which are being channelled into the national grid. Some of the electricity is being used in the Eastern Highlands plantations where there is coffee and tea production. If our communities get the chance to produce electricity and sell it to Zesa, they will be able to build more plants and sustain and repair the ones they have.”
He said REA wanted to manufacture transformers in a bid to do away with expensive equipment imported from India, but the proposal was shot down.
“This was going to be less expensive and we were going to increase the rural electrification rate. The other challenge we are facing as REA in Zimbabwe is that after we connect communities at a cost, we surrender everything to Zesa’s Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company. At one instance we sourced a $17 million loan which we used to conduct an accelerated electrification programme in the country.
“We finished work and handed over everything to Zesa, but the people who facilitated the loan wanted their money from us. At least Zesa was supposed to pay part of that loan because they were the ones now benefiting from the transmission lines we erected at a cost. That was not so and we struggled to pay the debt using the 6 percent that is levied from customers.”
Prof Mwenechanya said his authority was facing the same problem in Zambia, but they were close to solving the issue.
“We are very close to resolving that problem but we will assist you how to go around it.”
The Zambia delegation, which was made up of REA board of directors and senior managers, toured several electricity projects in Manicaland on a familiarisation tour.
Online Reporter