Electricity a rare commodity at Divundu

Residents in and surrounding Divundu in the Kavango East Region sometimes go up to four days without power, a situation blamed on heavy rains and storms that damage electricity infrastructures.

On Friday, Nored CEO Fillemon Nakashole issued a statement in which he apologised to residents in the Divundu area about the power cuts.

A visit to the area by Namibian Sun established that residents go for days without power, businesses without generators have to close and some see food spoiling due to the situation.

Divundu resident Marco Tapalo said that although power cuts are usually experienced during the rainy season, this time around it is worse than before.

Tapalo said that only well-established businesses are unaffected by power cuts due to having generators, but the same cannot be said for smaller businesses in the area.

“This time, it was a bit worse as sometimes we can be without electricity for three to four days. It's either a total blackout or it will be tripping on and off. It happened once last month when we had no power for up to four days,” he said.

Tapalo said that those afraid of seeing food getting spoilt either had to look for people who had generators to store their food or cook it all, while others had to dry meat products to avoid it from getting spoilt.

“Imagine if these blackout happened in towns were crime is rife, a lot of people would have been victims of robberies and housebreaking but we have to thank the fact that crime is contained in our area and I have not heard of any crimes being committed during the blackouts,” he said.

Another resident, Maria Haushiku, shared her sentiments, saying the situation is dire.

“We depend so much on electricity and to live without power for days is very stressful. Even while you are preparing a meal, you are doubting and praying that the power does not go off,” Haushiku said.

She called on those entrusted to provide electricity to act promptly when power cuts are experienced.

In the statement on Friday, Nakashole indicated that several issues have resulted in prolonged electricity interruptions.

“The Divundu area has been experiencing prolonged power interruptions during the prevailing rainy season due to various challenges. Those include but are not limited to heavy rain, excessive wind storms causing damages to the electricity supply infrastructures and limited access to the power lines for maintenance due to mahangu fields and farms as well as other technical-related problems on both the 66KV-Nampower and the 33KV-Nored Mahango-Bagani line that supplies power to Divundu areas and across the border to Botswana,” Nakashole said.

Nakashole assured that Nored's technical personnel in conjunction with Nampower's team are working on the issues to restore the quality of power supply and minimise interruptions.

Kenya Kambowe