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Vandals escalate Escom’s problems
By
Aubrey Mchulu - 27-05-2003 |
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It never rains but pours for the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Limited (Escom) which has been hit by vandals who are destroying its transformers in Blantyre at a time when it is battling to restore full generation capacity at Nkula B hydro power station destroyed in April.
Green Kumwenda, Escom’s Southern Electricity Supply (SES) deputy regional manager, said in an interview on Tuesday that in the late 1990s the vandals destroyed the transformers to extract oil from them but now they are going further to remove cables and other metals suspected to find their way to scrap metal dealers.
The oil is there both as a coolant and to provide insulation in the transformer, according to Kumwenda.
He said the vandals, who by Friday grounded 12 transformers in Blantyre resulting in blackouts in areas like Mbayani, Chilomoni, Zingwangwa, Nkolokosa and Magalasi townships, are taking advantage of the long hours of load-shedding to tamper with the transformers .
“We feel there is a highly organised crime syndicate behind it all which is targeting very remote and quite areas, especially places where there is literally no life at night,” said Kumwenda in the company of Escom Public Relations Officer Edward Chitsulo, adding that each transformer costs between K150,000 and K500,000 depending on size.
Kumwenda said the few people caught with the transformer oil in Lilongwe in the late 1990s sold it for petty things like lighting paraffin lamps “yet transformer oil is more expensive than paraffin.”
He said transformers are dangerous with high voltages such that even Escom staff cannot think of climbing them when they have not been given the green light that supply to the site has been disconnected.
Chitsulo said that barely hours after issuing the statement on the development on Monday this week, residents of Kachere Township in Blantyre foiled an attempt to dismantle a transformer in the area when they alerted Escom of suspicious people “working” on the gadget in their area. They reportedly run away upon seeing Escom staff approaching.
He said the area between Kandodo corner shop and Mbayani on the Zalewa Road in Blantyre has no power because a transformer was pulled down.
“It’s even more dangerous to the communities when the transformers [and lines] are down because this can cause accidents. Now we will be forced to buy transformers which you don’t buy like bread. We have to place orders and it takes time to have them here,” said Chitsulo.
Escom said in a statement issued on Monday that cases of transformer vandalism are increasing in the country and Blantyre alone has lost 12 in the last few days resulting in Blantyre.
Cases of transformer vandalism started in South Africa before spilling over to Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia and now Malawi, according to Kumwenda.
Chitsulo said vandalism is not endemic to Escom as even most roads have had their sign posts removed while in 2001 vandals removed Malawi Telecommunications Limited’s underground cables mostly in Blantyre, disrupting communication.
Escom’s generation capacity was drastically reduced from 240 to 140 mega watt in April this year when flooding destroyed the 100 mega watt-capacity Nkula B hydro power plant on the Shire River.
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