RUNDU – The Kavango West governor, Sirkka Ausiku is fed-up with power cuts that have become infuriating to her and the rest of the region. She said these power interruptions are affecting business and service delivery to the inhabitants of the region.
Ausiku said she feels what businesses, especially at Nkurenkuru, are feeling due to power interruptions. The Northern Regional Electricity Distributor (Nored) always says the power cuts are due to scheduled maintenance. “What is currently happening to Nkurenkuru is plain mismanagement. No power interruption to our capital should take more than four hours if power from NamPower is available at Mpasi substation,’’ she said.
“I do understand the anger and frustration of our communities, especially businesspeople and farmers, caused by the regular power outages in the region. Business people cannot afford more losses as this will lead to layoffs of workers,’’ she said.
What irks Ausiku more is the fact that both NamPower and Nored do not apologise for the inconveniences the outage is causing to the public.
“Household electronics are being damaged and schools suspend classes because of lack of water as water to the school is pumped with electric pumps. This situation is not acceptable!’’ she charged.
Ausiku, who has called on Nored to improve fast, also indicated that irrigation projects in the region, including Musese Green Scheme, have also brought complaints that they are heavily affected by the persisting power cuts.
“They are incurring losses amounting to N$250 000 a day, who takes responsibility? The NamPower national control officer has confirmed now that the power loss is on Nored’s side and not with NamPower. The power failures in Kavango West is of great concern,” she said.
The governor has asked Nored’s CEO in a letter why there are so many power failures in Kavango West compared to other regions and what is Nored’s plan to solve the power issue permanently? She also questioned whether the personnel and technicians are qualified or why are they failing to keep the power on.
The region is also complaining about the high cost of electricity and wants the board to find ways to offer reasonable prices.
Ausiku told New Era that when power goes off every now and then, there is quite a number of things at stake, especially losses in business, which no one currently takes responsibility of, food gets spoiled while electrical appliances sometimes get damaged.
Nored CEO Fillemon Nakashole, in a letter to the governor, a week ago said the company has noted with concern the poor service to the region and requested to have a stakeholder’s engagement at Nkurenkuru on Monday at 14h00.
“We have noted with concern an increase and persistent public outcry directed at the quality of supply in the Kavango West region and perception of exclusivity. Therefore, honourable governor, we humbly hereby invite you to this engagement meeting,” Nakashole said.
-jmuyamba@nepc.com.na