POWER outages are not a unique prodigy to Zambia but which still present a dreadfully plausible picture of what happens when a national power system flops.
Daily, many parts of Zambia are purposefully plunged into darkness for many hours through what has been acknowledged as normal load shedding.
When that happens, first the lights and electronics, such as refrigerators, computers turn off, the internet and telephone lines stop to work and the cellphone networks are largely down.
Of course, electronic banking and mobile money transactions no longer become an option just as all industrial processes grind to a halt. The economy cannot find green grass elsewhere.
And because petrol and diesel are generally pumped with the use of electricity, fuel tanks can’t be refilled, and distribution networks in the main simply stall.
That is not the end. Water systems, dependent on power to push and allot water, stop working as sewerage plants too fail. The list is interminable.
For Zambia, this of course has everything to do with failing hydropower generation due to poor rains received in the last rainy season and water levels at Kariba Dam have in the same way plunged to worryingly low levels.
On Wednesday, the Zambia Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ZACCI) took a familiarization tour of the Kariba North Bank to see for itself where power generation stands as water levels in the Kariba Dam, which turns the turbines is perilously running low.
It was at that moment that Kariba North Bank power station manager, Edward Simbaya, made it copiously clear that if this water situation is not well managed, power generation at the station is likely to shut down by December because water levels will have reached the minimum operational degree.
Mr Simbaya said the water levels in the dam this year have kept on dropping forcing the company to shut down some generators.
For him, the only way of the current situation is to increase load shedding period because out of six generators only three are operational, meaning power generation has mathematically dropped by 50 per cent. That is certainly obnoxious!
And ZACCI board member, Alexander Lawrence, says it is essential for his organisation to appreciate the challenges being faced by the power utility company.
Mr Lawrence says that load shedding is not just a ZESCO defy but for all stakeholders as it affects industrial production.
He has explained that there is need to find an elucidation to current power situation as this has not only affected Zambia but other neighbouring countries as well.
Notwithstanding the fact that load shedding is bad news for jobs, investment and food prices, these interruptions will undeniably have a negative impact on the costs of Zambia’s small businesses and sectors of the economy as well.
Ok, load shedding is very expensive because it means many companies in Zambia using electricity-like the steel industry and others will have to reduce operating hours because of power outages and all these things have a negative effect on the economy.
The other point to bear in mind is that if load shedding is maintained in the long term, it will be costlier to produce anything in Zambia.
Obviously these costs will be passed on to the consumers through increased commodity prices and life will be hard for the majority of Zambians.
Thus Zambia is caught between the deep blue sea and the Devil and load shedding will therefore require a deep thought so that at the end the economy does not suffer serious consequences.
Indeed the other way out of this quagmire is to seriously turn to solar energy which will again come at a greater cost. So load shedding is the Devil we shall all love to hate until perhaps rains come.
