President Edgar Lungu says the power deficit the country is currently experiencing should not be politicised.
President Lungu says the issue of power outages by ZESCO calls for concerted efforts from the stakeholders, the church and politicians to assist government in resolving the matter.
He was briefing Journalists at Kariba North bank when he gave an update after inspecting and touring the ZESCO Kariba North Bank plant at the Kariba dam.
He said the issue of water was serious and needed not to be politicised but instead find ways of addressing it amicably.
“The issue of water was serious and needed not to be politicised but instead find ways of addressing it amicably,” President Lungu said.
He said short and long term measures like importation of about 150 megawatts of power from the neighbouring Mozambique was being undertaken.
He disclosed that the 300 mega-watts Maamba Coal power plant expected to be commissioned in November this year would help cushion the current power deficit Zambia was experiencing.
The head of state further disclosed that government is promoting alternative renewable energy technologies that do not depend on water to generate electricity such as solar, geo-thermal biomass among others.
President Lungu also directed Mr Yaluma to ensure the memorandum of Understanding signed between Zambia and Mozambique were expedited.
He said Zambia and Zimbabwe had been hit by a power deficit due to low water levels as a result of poor rainfall pattern during the 2014 /2015 rainy season.
The President explained that the water flow into the reservoirs were not adequate for the national power generation requirement to meet the escalating national demand until the end of 2015.
Mr. Lungu thanked the Zambian people for exhibiting patience during this period but to utilise every opportunity to conserve electricity by using other alternative sources of energy to reduce pressure on the already constrained power machinery system.
“I assure the nation that the current power rationing measures will progressively reduce as government implement a broad rage of measures to normalise power supply,” he said.
Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) Managing Director said the problem of low water levels was serious such that the company was forced to reduce power output from the average 800 megawatts to 540 at Kariba North bank.
The President who was accompanied by Energy and Water Development Minister Christopher Yaluma and other government officials on a fact finding mission of ZESCO operations at Kafue Gorge and Kariba North Bank has since returned to Lusaka.
First tell us how you used the euro bond money that was given to zesco
Stop telling us what to and not do
Mr president, Don’t disappoint us or find excuses on power outrage. 50 years of independence is when you can be talking of alternatives? Stop exporting power because it was meant for Zambian use only.
What this government is doing after all promises is an acceptable. Accept your mistakes and take responsibility.
Your energy Minister should apologize to Zambians. he is just quite with no solution. what kind of leadership is this??
Reduce your ministerial / presidential costs and invest in generators to help.
This is very cheap, coming from the president. Edgar, please provide solutions. The opposition did so 3 months ago and you never listened. Folks, when Edgar said, “I have no vision”, he was being brutally honest
In politics you can either choose the right leaders to do the right things or elect the wrong leaders and beg them to do the right thing.
ECL: ‘was this anticipated’
Mundende: ‘the rain pattern was very deceptive’
I think Mundende’s wife must have kicked her own backside for marrying such a dimwit.
Environmentalists & such people have talked about climate change, el nino for so many years now.
Zesco being dependent on weather what have they been doing about this all these years.
I can offer a guess, hosting workshops at Siavonga where they have been doing ma jameson.
What will the church do to help PF government solve electricity shortage? Is he reconsidering Fr. Bwalya to be board chairman of Zesco again? Fr. Bwalya’s red cards does not represent the church.
Edgar you are out… red card 2016!!
ECL: ‘Was this anticipated?’
Mundende: ‘The rain pattern was deceptive’
Zesco largely is dependent on weather & environmentalists have been talking about climate change , el nino for so many years but our Zesco can still be deceived by the rain pattern.
While I believe we have good engineers (& all other professionals), political appointees leading our parastatals (& by extension people who appoint them) are a disgrace.
Someone has to take responsibility for this so that we move on and so far Lungu and his PF minions are not prepared to do this
This kaponya of a president surprises me. Firstly, ZESCO is a government owned institution and when things go wrong with any government institution or any thing in the control on the government like the economy, government is to blame and the responsibility of fixing the problem. Clearly he does not even understand his role as president or that of governing the country. It should be politicized and will be politicized so that something is done, so stop making excuses and flying around or taking trips and do your work!!!!! Secondly, how does he expect stakeholders to get involved?when the institution is run by cradres without professional backgrounds. I think Lungu must be retired in national interest.
I THINK LUNGU MUST BE RETIRED IN NATIONAL INTEREST. ITS CLEAR HE IS A PROVEN FAILURE (PF) LEADING A TEAM OF PROVEN FAILURES (PF).
A bit rich coming from a party that campaigned in 2011 to end load shedding in 90 days.
That was one of the bases for Sata being elected to the Presidency in 2011. But clearly, like with employment and housing, Sata and PF were lying. Even with Sata’s health, PF could not stop lying. Lungu continues to lie about the power cuts through his buck teeth!
There must be rivers near the Zambezi and kafue underground where water engineers could locate and then sink hundreds of boreholes that could supply millions of litres of water to Kariba Dam. Excess water could be channelled for irrigation purposes.
Zambia has hundreds of engineering graduates just roaming the streets. Please plan properly this time round
pwa ha ha ha ha ha! iyi naikonda
Lungu wants the stakeholders (according to him includes) the church and politicians to assist government in resolving power crisis! Is he passing the buck or reality has sunk in!
No he is asking the church to pray for the problem to magically disappear like a fart in the wind…selfsame way buffoon Mukanga and “RATSA” were praying for road accidents to disappear a couple months ago ….this is what you get from shambolic myopic leaders.
No one is accepting blame or taking responsibility, no factfind hence life goes on come end of the month everyone gets their salary plus bonus plus allowances…the circle of incompetence continues …welcome to Zambia..and someone wonders why we are poor!!
Chagwa Agwa is blaming God for Zambia’s self imposed problems. Asking for solutions from the opposition is pretty stoopid. Why did he go to State House if he does not know how to run the country? Also political parties always want to implement their own agendas, and not to hand them over to a crooked ruling party. That’s what political parties are about.
I conquer with the Head of state that no one should politicize the issue of power.But fools have continued making noise as if EL was there in 1964.I urge well meaning Zambians such fools who want to gain cheap political mileage
Lungu must take responsibility for this.
As president IT IS YOUR JOB!
Do not try and shift the blame. This crisis is due to poor planning by PF.
You took your eye off the ball and with Sata were more interested in by-elections, renaming airports, new districts and fighting with Chiefs.
YOU neglected the economy and the value of the Kwacha.
The blame rests squarely at your door!
Electricity is a requisite service for anything, say development, education, health, sanitation the list is numerous. Alas! these also happen to be government deliverables.
A call not to politicise electricity is not only laughable but insulting the integrity of the people you govern. Zambia has enough technical expertise with known solutions but always ignored but giving excuses of resources; but never deplete of the same when it suits them for by-elections!
I suppose load shedding now has become normal, well I must be damned because for almost a decade I have never had a power cut not even for 2 minutes! That my friends is service delivery
So Mr Lungu, respectfully, do your work now and let the opposition remind the people of Zambia how you are doing! The ball in is in your…
Imagine how can you not politicise the issue when its politicians who hand pick ZESCO CEOs and Directors…its them who arm twist CEOs to fund their political agendas and campaigns from the corporation’s accounts…why don’t they come clean and show us ZESCOs books for the past 20 years…oh no wants you do that his corrupt friend Ruphia Banda will be implicated as well.
Lazy Edgar does not inspire confidence and lacks leadership acumen.
…………….in your Jameson,continue enjoying,let them talk mudala..
Bwana lungu you govern through politics everything is politise when you’re building a bridge you politise it so even when there is shortage of power we will politise it by the way even if we run out of condoms we will politise it you gorven by politics so we will ask you in the language you understand and talk to a prist as such
Zambia is a Kreesian nation, pray to Jehova, the problem will vanish.
Back to reality Guys. The solution lied on the reforestation of the Zambezi River basin area. In so doing, rainwater will be arrested and allowed to percolate into the ground and recharge the water table. This water table will release water into the river during the dry season through riverbank springs. Professor Wangari was given this assignment by SADCC in 2008, but then, she was diagnosed with cancer. Her assistant, married to a Zambian, is working in Paris at present. The detailed roadmap is in his custody.
“..Lungu says the issue of power outages by ZESCO calls for concerted efforts from the stakeholders, the church …to assist government in resolving the matter.”
Does this lazy bum know what he is talking about; people pay Zesco for a service and people are getting the short end of the stick; as the company is failing to deliver…you talk of stakeholders, the church now do they selfsame stakeholders enjoy the benefits and allowances the ZESCO directors enjoy? You now want to include the church just because its suits you and we are a “christian nation” whatever that means.
Why should it not be a political manner since you hand pick Zesco CEOs from your PF cadre cesspool to run that company and load-shedding affects SMEs which in turn affects productivity.
What a dull man this…
Good comments Mwape, Zambia has the skills to help curb this problem. Let the Gover
nment employ the right people at Zesco.
Absolutely! ZESCO is in its currentstatebecause of political appointments of people who are unsuitable for the positions they are given.it is very sad that this very important and crucial sector is so badly damaged at the expense of us the customers. ZESCO is the government’s cash cow. EL is saying do not politicize but it can not be avoided. It is a political issue!
We need a more detailed and convincing explanation as to why the water in the Kariba which still looks very full to the naked eye is not enough to exert pressure for power generation. Why not find ways to push it to the generators? And why isnt anyone talking about kafue gorge which has been supplying households where as Kariba was much for export? The Euro bond that was given to ZESCO has clearly not helped matters. Where did it go?
zuba mbwee,but you keep on complaining.You will die just like that.
Zesco did a good job this morning by sending us texts about power outage in our area in Kabangwe as being from 6 to 12 30, but it is now close to 14hrs, we still don’t have power
Invest in solar panels if you own that house my friend used solar panels from commerical solar farms with still 10 years on them cost about £80/ panel these are new age and very efficient…you need about 6 if you have a borehole and also commercial batteries..welcome to offgrid living.
ZESCO SMSs do. It mean anything at times. We sometimes receive them after the power has been and gone. But iyi yena ni joke of a company. It would be interesting to see the qualifications and CVs of all people in key positions there.
The president said Zambia wanted to export power to Mozambique now he says Mozambique is supplying power without memorandum of Understanding between these countries.
The water levels was ok compared to 1996.
Any way this is PF were thinking is a curse and one wonders the caliber of those voters who voted for these empty vessels.
Pamaka means darkness.
Gadaffi managed to get water for his nationals in the desert and he was killed! The country that controls over 40% of water bodies in the southern african region is in crisis after a years poor fall, which was not even a full blown drought! What would happen if the rains do not fall for the next two years
If the country had invested steadily in mini-hydro projects and alternative sources of enegy by now we would not be talking about a crisis. For instance northern, muchinga and Luapula would not need to be part of the national grid today.
PF AND CHAGWA TOGOTHER WITH HIS GODFATHER RUPIA BAMBA KUYABEBELE COME SEPTEMBER 2016.THEY HAVE FAILED US ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
Tongaman alishupa!!!
The word politicize or British: politicise entered the English language in 1846. One of its definitions include “to cause (someone) to become interested or involved in government or politics”. Who in their right state of mind can abscond from becoming interested in what their government is doing on a perpetual problem such as ZESCO’s power deficiency? Mr. Lungu, sometimes it is wise to shut up, they say God created man with 2 ears and 1 mouth, listen twice as you speak. Power deficiencies are not NEW, they existed even before you became president. The alternatives and new power plant commissioning you are vomiting only exist on paper.
Edgar Lungu, Mr President, you have useless advisor’s and assistances. If what you are saying is true about low water levels why are your people not putting out photos of low water levels ? Just employ me as special advisor and i will turn this media war in your favour, but the corruption scandals i don’t touch until proven innocent.
Mr president, this is a political problem and requires a political solution with a complex management technique from an intelligent polititian.
Mr president, give Zambians a solution not beans day in day out.
Continued.
You are saying ” power deficiencies are a direct result of low rainfall” you talk as if addressing a population of or school for the deaf (disability: not in bad way). Zambia has experienced massive load shading at a time of abundant rainfall. The idea of one ZESCO is to fortify monopolistic and political ambitions. Go back to your drawing board, it is time to invest in long term and sustainable power sources. People are tired of speeches.
This kaponya of a president surprises me. Firstly, ZESCO is a government owned institution and when things go wrong with any government institution or any thing in the control on the government like the economy, government is to blame and the responsibility of fixing the problem. Clearly he does not even understand his role as president or that of governing the country. It should be politicized and will be politicized so that something is done, so stop making excuses and flying around or taking trips and do your work!!!!! Secondly, how does he expect stakeholders to get involved?when the institution is run by cradres without professional backgrounds. I THINK LUNGU MUST BE RETIRED IN NATIONAL INTEREST. ITS CLEAR HE IS A PROVEN FAILURE (PF) LEADING A TEAM OF PROVEN FAILURES (PF).
The Church! The Church Really? Anyway we the church have already thanked The LORD for the water bodies Zambia has, that are not being utilized for power generation. The Abundant wind and solar capabilities. No! we shall not politicize but bring this simple but explicit phenomenon to the fore ground.
It would be appropriate for the Zambezi River Authority to give readings of the dam water level. Alongst every river and dams there are yardsticks that measure the water level. Why have this not been made public to allay conspiracy theories. We hear all sorts of rumors :
The Karbia wall craks affect performance
Electricity was pledged to Zimbabwe for election support
Chinese machinery from the eurobonds is operating below capacity
Power is being exported to cushion the deficit in the current account
Etc Etc
Just put the actual facts before the public and you will find the public quite reasonable if the truth of low water levels can be supported.
I hereby PUBLICLY CHALENGE both LT and well meaning patriotic Zambians to write us an article explaining what the weather phenomenon called EL NINO is.
I further issue a challenge that LT and well schooled bloggers go to the USA Weather Met Dept, Australian Met Dept, Europe Met Dept or any other reputed weather forecaster and TELL US what is the forecast probability of the El Nino effect re-occurring in 2016. Is it also expected to be less or more severe than the 2015 one ?
Come on ba LT, take me on !!!!
Fcuk you! You can Google that yourself.
The problem of zesco is political. Cadres are appointed as MDs . Money to fund ruling party campaign is drawn from Zesco. I have yet to hear of an advert for a CO of zesco. Ministers just dream a person to be MD. the climate change problem has not started now . If it were a private co alternatives could have been put in place by now . Cry the beloved country Zambia
What has the church got to do with loadshedding? Lungu u say don’t politicize the problem but we also say don’t spiritualise the load shedding.
Ni muzungu only who can run things properly not bamakaka na bangwele.
Finally the govt of the day takes the full blame. Way back in the late 80s and early 90s one learned electrical engr R Mwansa warned the kk and ftjc about this they ignored, ecl now finds himself in a tight corner. ZWA must close all the canals leading off the dam into Zim they are too many. Whether we insult the govt of the day or Zesco the problem is still there. Itezhi tezhi dam must be expanded so that it holds enough water for its generation and supply kafue gorge for starters. Insulting the president is not the solution even if we change govts ten times and there is low rains nothing will change. Zesco start the coal plant open it up
No body is insulting President.
People are only replaying to his lack of action and his insult to human intelligence.
After all, not all Zambians have extremely low IQ to qualify to be members of PF “intelligentsia” like you.
What I don’t understand!!! PF came into power four years ago promising that these kinds of things won’t happen when they rule the country. Four years down the road ati its the weather and don’t politicize the loadshedding. It’s senseless.
SOME ONE AT ZESCO NEEDS TO BE FIRED.
IN ITEZHI TEZHI IT IS A PROBLEM OF WATER MISMANAGEMENT RATHER THAN POOR RAINS.
HOW DID ZESCO ALLOW THE CHINESE COMPANY TO RELEASE ALL THE WATER FROM ITEZHI TEZHI LAKE WHEN WE ARE SUPPOSED TO MONITOR AND ENSURE THAT THE DAM IS FULL ALL THE TIME?
THIS IS MAINLY DUE TO LACK OF HYDROLOGICAL PLANNING AS KAFUE RIVER EMERGES FROM RICH EQUATORIAL RAIN FORESTS.
WHY CANT WE GET LUAPULA WATER INTO KAFUE THROUGH THE PEDDICLE? THE CHINESE CAN HELP US, AS THAT WATER GETS LOST AND WASTED INTO “LWALABA” RIVER AND IS NOT NEEDED BY EQUATORIAL WATER RICH DRC.
BUT UYU NDIYE BU NGWERE!!
Te King Cobra alandile whilst still in opposition, ati “once You vote P.F, to office, electricity blackouts will be a thing of the past”.
Instead of asking starving Zambians to pray for a solution thereby mocking them, just return the cash you & Your Mafia Godfather who bankrolled your campaign keep r@ping from the Government treasury.
Atase’!!
I agree with you and that this is why the inflow and outflow from reservoirs and the quantity in them should be measured and this used to be done in the past on a daily basis. The Chief Hydrologist at ZESCO would advise on the amount of water to be released for power generation from time to time based on these measurements. This is why the current situation appear not to have been planned because up to about end of May ZESCO was generating power at full blast. Then suddenly we are told there is no water. This is a clear indication of lack of planning.
And who will we cry to if politicians are running away from it. This is an issue that the government of the day must solve that’s why we voted them in. And therefore it will be a political topic as is every aspect of the economy. So HEECL please note that we shall politicise this issue as its part of the economy of zambia and this load shedding has negative economic consequences. For 50 years we should be better placed. By the way the more time you waste the more the Kariba dam wall weakens. If we can’t handle the shortfall in rain what more the whole dam wall crumbling… I shudder to think what will happen then. So find solutions to this energy problem now ba President and then you will claim the glory.
Engineers are not working in Zambia.It’s indeed laughable to say there no water when we have luapula river,lake tanganiza and Mweru.Govt should build a power plant in northern or luapula river.Not only that environmental specialists are not working at all.let them make sure sources of streams are protected by the charcoal burners. Iye mayo Iwe Zambia is dead .A country of men and women who don’t plan.World bank warned zambia about this but as usual pipo in govt don’t work but only enjoy making money thru workshops and stealing.U’re killing the country u politicians!!!Atase baane
Any development or lack of it comes from POLITICAL POLICIES and therefore the issue of load shedding is a sign of political failure by PF government. It is a political issue whether you like it or not. It is not the responsibility of the church, individual Zambians or any other organization, but the PF government. What are your policies on electricity and if you have them, who formulated them? Of course you did. Stop passing the buck!!! It is political and should be POLITICISED!!!!!!!!
It is not just expanding the generation capacity but also expanding the transmission and distribution lines. If for example you increase your pumping capacity the water pipes need to be increased otherwise they will burst. A number of substations have been expanded e.g. PHI and Kabulonga substations to meet the increased load. The generation capacity has increased from about 1700 MW to about 2200 MW, see ERB website but unfortunately the new gensets cannot generate extra power without fuel i.e. water. And you still want to know how the Eurobond has been used.
Of course. 200 million USD for few pipes and absolute Chinese transformers?
Are you raving mad. Where is the rest of the loot? In Hong Kong?
Lungu you’re the one who is cheaply politicking by not saying anything substantive or reassuring to the country. How are nuns, pastors, and priests relevant stakeholders in this? Can a whole president be this dull!
I think ZESCO must be privatised. There is no point in boasting that the company is ours when it cannot be relied on to deliver electricity to our homes and businesses. Cheap is expensive.