For many years, Malawians have had to live with a very unreliable power supply. We have been forced to accept that intermittent power supply is just a part and parcel of any normal rain season. Many are the fingers that have been pointed at ESCOM. Many are indeed the times ESCOM has given the nation very flimsy excuses-when it is not trash due to heavy rains causing the power failure, and then it’s the sand due to low levels of water in the Shire river. After all, ESCOM’s machines were designed to run on water and not sand or trash.
Bad carpenters will always blame their tools. The temptation to apply on ESCOM management this adage is stronger and almost irresistible if you consider the pathetic excuses always given like the one above. For once you start asking when ESCOM realized that their machines run on water and not sand or trash. For God’s sake you ask what is it that the management is doing to avert the blackouts given that in Malawi, despite the climate change problem, seasons and rainfall patterns are still predictable to aid the planning for such times.
However, one very big problem with us Malawians, is the tendency to judge others and rush in calling for other peoples heads. It is true that bad carpenters blame their tools, but then, not all carpenters who blame their tools are bad carpenters. ESCOM and Water board management for example may not necessarily be bad carpenters we have always thought they are. For example if I may ask, how many of us have ever posed and reflected on why today close to 50 years of independence, we are still complaining about not just black outs but long term and destructive blackouts.
It is my candid opinion that if we started thinking and looking for answers beyond ESCOM management, the facts become obvious. The government, the civil society and the media too share the largest portion of the blame. For instance, how many of us have ever heard of our energy policy and understood what is contained their in. How many of the civil society organizations have ever spoken on the need for our country to invest in cheaper forms and reliable energy. How many of the so called human rights organizations have gone beyond petty physical violation of human rights and pointed out to government that reliable power is not a privilege but a human right (by virtue of its invaluable connection to the right to economic development).
Realistically, most of us who complain bitterly about the frequent power failure and rush to blame the ESCOM management would perform much worse if we were given the chance to run the organization in the same environment. It is common for the government and the ruling parties to get money from ESCOM and yet invest very little in building the sustainability and reliability of their products. Again if I may ask, what percentage of our national budget goes to the Ministry of Energy and Mining (MOEM) and how much of the MOE budget is allocated to the development of the electricity system. Are we not demanding too much from Escom and its management if we demand quality service (Power all day everyday) when the company is relying on the same old machines Dr Banda commissioned close to 50 years ago. Is there anything really in our energy policy if at all we have one that deliberately considers the utilization of alternative sources of energy like the geothermal electricity and the just discovered uranium? Have we done enough to help ESCOM set up small hydro electricity generating plants in zones like the Wowve plant to ease the burden of depending on Nkula and Tedzani, which ironically are too old to steadily meet the growing demand for electricity?
Unless the government can answer and address these questions, there is really no point in us or the government to shift the blame at Escom management. It would make more sense if the government was to ask for a loan from the World Bank for the development of alternative sources of energy within our country instead of focusing our attention at the Cabora Bassa interconnection project. Moreover, even though some are pushing for the interconnection project, the hidden cost of such a project, which is not yet clear to most of us, may be too high as compared to the development of our own systems.
The civil society and the media too also share most of the blame. It is very unfortunate that in a country like ours where poverty levels are very striking, the civil society and media agenda is dominated by party politics. The media and the Civil society collectively have done very little if not nothing to influence policy and decisions on energy. Understandably, the media has been to concerned with selling their papers by giving the population an overdose of party politics. The excuse has always been that the readers want us to report politics which in my own view is an invalid claim because much as the media can be influenced by the consumer choices, it is the only market player with more power to influence the mind and attitudes of the consumer.
Thus if the media wanted to advance a development agenda and not be pawns in the political chess they would do it. The most unfortunate thing is that those who claim to be working for the advancement of the society most often have their hidden agenda and that the human cause argument is just employed to buy sympathy and image for themselves. In this case, our media is so concerned with making profits to an extent that issues that directly affect the progression of our society are deliberately ignored because of their low potential market value. The media has on the very same principle totally ignored its duty of helping the government come up with a viable energy plan. The media has done very little to expose the government energy policy for public scrutiny and input- a noble and professional duty any responsible media should do in a democracy.
Civil society organization leaders are even worse. These are individuals who simply want to create a name for them and get the next parliamentary seat or ministerial position. Very few of the civil society leaders are really concerned with the human plight unless there is an explicit connection to the politics. It is very unfortunate that as we talk, most Malawians do not even know what policies their government is pursuing despite having all the civil society organizations. It is very unfortunate that up to now, most civil societies think the fight against environmental degradation can be won in the absence of a viable and environmental friendly energy source like electricity. The civil society leaders are very much aware of the benefits of having a reliable electricity supply would have on the countries social and economic status in terms of helping to woo investors thereby creating more jobs.
It is high time we stopped pointing fingers at each other and concentrated on finding ways on how we can move forward. Until then our development efforts will be too slow and frustrating.
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