Kasama Zesco clients complain

Several business houses in Kasama have complained over Zesco’s unstable supply of electricity in the town.

Businessmen stormed Kasama District Commissioner’s office today to lodge their complaints over poor supply of the commodity by Zesco.

Shoprite stores Regional Manager, Cornwell Mwiinga, Chambeshi  Water and  Sewerage  Company  representative,  Arnold  Musonda,  and other businessmen  complained that the continuous low  electricity power voltage  has affected their operations heavily.

Mr Mwiinga complained that Shprite management fears to stock perishable goods such as cheese and others because of the unstable supply of electricity that has been experienced in the recent days.

He revealed that refrigeration equipment has been damaged several times due to  sporadic power fluctuations.

And the Chambeshi Water and  Sewerage Company representative, Arnold  Musonda, has accused the sole energy supplier of blowing his company’s  major water pump that has ended up plunging the township  in water blues.

Mr Musonda said the maintenance of the water pumps was costly, adding that repairing  one pump  costs about K 7 million  and the  pumps  may be blown up more than four times.

Meanwhile Kasama District Commissioner Colonel Stephen Chanda has requested Zesco to stabilize the electricity supply within two weeks.

Col Chanda observed that  several Zesco clients have taken him at task to  explain why  the district was experiencing  such low voltage or sometimes  high voltage that ends up  blowing many  commercial equipment and household appliances.

He also advised the company to learn to inform the clients about the power surge in the area instead of just tripping the power suddenly.

But Zesco Regional Manager, Lawrence Sinzala, explained that the tripping and outages were as a result of disturbances of the system on the national grid.

Mr Sinzala produced the statistics of the power outages that are caused by main system disturbances to the clients through the DC’s office.

He also added that power generation at Chishimba has been staggering due constant break downs of machines and that currently Chishimba was supplying only 4 mega watts instead of the normal supply of 6 mega watts. He, however, assured the clients of normal supply in two weeks.

Kasama town has been experiencing power outages for some days that has affected the water reticulation, major business operations and gutting clients’ equipment such computers, TV sets and heavy duty equipment.

ZANIS/ENDS/AP/EB