Zimbabwe: Zesa Should Address Power Woes

Source from:  The Herald (Harare) 10 January 2008 01/11/2008

The challenges at Zesa are well documented. The solutions are what we are hoping for now. The headline story in this paper yesterday that the irrigated tobacco crop could go to waste because of erratic power supplies made sad reading. Going through the article, I kept hoping and praying that those farmers would not lose their crop. I kept praying that whatever strategies the electricity utility is employing would yield results before the crop is lost, and with it, billions of dollars and kilojoules of energy, not to mention other not-so-visible inputs. What quickly came to mind were the hundreds of hectares of winter wheat that were lost because there was no moto muzhinji. I could picture the green fields of wheat turning brown, not because they were ready for harvest but because there was no power to sustain irrigation systems to water the wheat. In contrast, lack of power for tobacco could mean the crop would remain green instead of turning the yellowish brown colour that it should turn through curing. From experience, tobacco curing is a process that needs careful handling. The temperatures should be right for a farmer to come out with the good quality crop Zimbabwe is renowned for. Power outages will result in a poorly cured, hence low quality, crop that will consequently fetch poor prices or that will just be turned into manure. This means adequate supplies of power are not just essential but critical. The tobacco farmers are panicking, understandably so. Zesa has promised them it is looking into the matter but this is one parastatal whose word cannot be relied upon because of its poor track record. Of course, the farmers might have no choice but to stand on its word and keep praying that this time around Zesa will be fired up enough to deliver the critical power. Statistics from the Tobacco Research Board are that 9 907 hectares were planted under irrigation. At least 120 million kilogrammes of tobacco are projected for this year, almost doubling last season's output. However, this largely depends on Zesa. An alternative during the curing process is coal but we all know the story there. For the past number of seasons, growers have bemoaned inadequate supplies. Coal has hardly come in the required tonnage because of either poor production at Hwange Colliery or the parastatal will be busy fighting with merchants. At the end of the day the tobacco grower is left poorer. Of course, the plight of the tobacco grower reflects that of other players in the economy and households which have continued to bemoan the power outages that it has become a jingle. We can never begin to imagine how costly the power challenges have been. Maybe let's give Zesa one more chance. I had a chat this other day with the power utility's public relations manager, Mr Fullard Gwasira, who gave an explanation as to the parastatal's challenges.One could not help feeling sorry for the power utility. I did not have the parastatal's mission statement at hand as I was writing this piece but I am sure whatever it says, Zesa has actually done the opposite. Reports are that the power utility is working on its Hwange Power Station and that efforts are also being directed at reviving operations at three smaller stations in Harare, Bulawayo and Munyati which produce a combined 150 megawatts when operating at full capacity. Zesa chief executive Engineer Ben Rafemoyo assured the nation that at least $1 trillion had would be pumped into these units to have them up and running once again. Zimbabwe requires 1 500MW daily. Achieving this would sound too ambitious for Zesa but they say a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. Zesa should progressively continue to pursue strategies that will see more power to industry and households. The power utility has an enormous responsibility under which it continues to stagger but we remain hopeful things will turn brighter for this our nation. Enditem