MAREP Phase 9 Works Commerce In October

By Glory Msowoya, MANA

Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining Public Relations Officer, Saidi Banda says works for Malawi Rural Electrification Project MAREP phase 9 will commerce on October 1,2020.

Saidi revealed this on Monday saying the ministry is in the process of designing and surveying sites and power line routes.

“It is expected that procurement of materials and sourcing of contractors for construction of MAREP sites should be completed by September, 2020. Therefore, works are expected to start by 1st October, 2020,” Banda said.

He said the ministry has updated the Master Plan for Rural Electrification which will be used for the next five years from 2020 to 2025 that will be reviewed after two years depending on the availability of sites included in the Master Plan for districts.

He said all is set through the updated Master Plan that will coerce its drive to achieve the admirable rural electrification program.

 “The sites included in the Master Plan were submitted to the Ministry (Department of Energy) after a transparent identification of the same by the district councils themselves by using the acceptable structures, thus, VDC, ADC and approval by full council.

“The submission was accepted as authentic when it was signed by the DC and the council chairperson of each council. The Master Plan lists all sites that require electrification in a district considering priority, distance from the grid and the estimated electricity demand of the site,” he explained.

However, an energy expert who is also former Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, Grain Malunga, is of the view that there is need for Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (ESCOM) and Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) to import more power and increase power generation as one way of achieving objectives of MAREP.

“With this program we see each and every year the number of people looking for electricity increasing, so looking at the current national power grid there is need for more concerted efforts from EGENCO and ESCOM on the power availability,” Malunga said.

Public Relations Manager for ESCOM, Innocent Chitosi was not immediately available for comment.

MAREP is a government of Malawi project aimed at increasing access to electricity to people in peri-urban and rural areas in order to reduce poverty, transform rural economies, improve productivity and the quality of social services.

MAREP has so far since 1980, developed a 4.5MW Wovwe Hydro Power Plant, extended power transmission and distribution lines to district administration sites, major trading sites, tobacco growing areas and over 900 other trading sites from phase 4 to Phase 8.