ESCOM plans massive load shedding during Easter

Malawians should brace themselves for a dark Easter holiday as the country’s sole electricity provider, Electricity Supply Commission of Malawi (ESCOM), plans a massive load-shedding to carry out some maintenance works.

According to the schedule published in the local papers on Tuesday, March 31, 2015, the utility supplier says the three-day load-shedding commences on Good Friday, April 3 and run through Easter Monday, April 6.

This means consumers will have to stay long hours without electricity. The schedule shows that when blackout hits an area, the minimum time it will be taking before electricity resumes is five hours.

“Please note that ESCOM may load-shed outside the load-shedding programme,” adds the notice.

Such load-shedding affects some companies and other businesses that heavily rely on electricity for their operations. Most hospitals, too, especially where they do not have back-up generator sets, suffer as they cannot help patients that require operation.

Some consumers have reacted to this development saying the timing of the load-shedding is wrong.

“What kind of maintenance is ESCOM carrying out?” asked a Mangochi resident Levison Wasili. “Do they know that every time they carry out load-shedding programmes we consumers suffer a lot?”

Martha Givah who owns a fresh foods shop in Ntcheu had no kind words for the utility body.

“ESCOM do not have the welfare of consumers at heart. We lose business when there’s blackout because our products decompose,” said Givah.

It has almost become a norm for ESCOM to carry out such load-shedding programmes during festive seasons.

ESCOM is the sole electricity provider in Malawi.

Over the years, the corporation has faced power generation problems as a result of massive silt deposits in the River Shire.

A multimillion dollar intervention by the US government under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has borne scanty progress.