MINISTRY OF ENERGY, ZESCO, ERB INSPECT LUSAKA FLOOD AREAS
The Ministry of Energy, Energy Regulation Board and ZESCO Limited on Sunday, 2 March 2025 inspected the flood-affected parts of Kanyama and Makeni to ascertain their safety before electricity supply could be restored. On 22 February 2025, ZESCO disconnected electricity supply to parts of Kanyama and Makeni as a preventive move to save lives and property after the water levels in homes reached socket-level. So far, supply has been restored to Garden House, CK Marble, Garden Park, BMN, Rosedale and up to Kalundu township. Areas near White Wall Fence and Chisomo Hospital are also back on grid supply. ZESCO acting Senior Regional Manager-Lusaka South Percy Mushambi said: “The flooded areas are still off supply while areas where water levels have gone down power has been restored, a process which will continue. The target is to switch on more customers but that is subject to conditions improving.”
Meanwhile, ZESCO Board Chairperson Vickson Ncube said the national power utility is working in collaboration with the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unity to bring relief to the affected communities. “The government works through a lot of arms and one of them is DMMU. DMMU is supposed to bring relief and that is food and water. We are fully appraised by DMMU that they have engaged ZNS to ensure that bowsers deposit water in reservoirs or containers they can find so that the communities in those areas in spite of having no power to pump boreholes, no water from pumps the bowsers bring water to save lives. Our top priority is to save lives.”
And Energy Regulation Board (ERB) Chairperson James Banda said: “We have been updated by ZESCO as ERB on what has been happening daily. So, we know exactly what has been happening. The ERB staff with ZESCO have been monitoring the situation daily. What we have seen today and what was pleasing, particularly to me and everyone else is the understanding from the people that safety comes first. So, yes having no power is an inconvenience but everybody we have talked to and seen accepts that safety comes first. To see those people who have been without power for the last seven days explaining this to us was very pleasing. We want the rain but there have been these unintended consequences that we have to deal with, and we hope as time progresses, we will be able to normalize the situation.”
Ministry of Energy Permanent Secretary for Electricity Arnold Simwaba said: “We have to thank the communities for understanding that their safety comes first. It was important for us to witness and appreciate the situation on the ground. But as we have said, we want to restore supply when water levels go down.”
Some areas remain unsafe as the water has not sufficiently cleared to allow power restoration. ZESCO continues to monitor these areas and will restore power when safety allows.
ZESCO continues to urge its customers to avoid using electrical equipment in flooded areas and to stay away from fallen power lines. Any electrical hazards should be reported immediately.