Project aims to rehabilitate power plants

A project aimed at rehabilitating Zambia's degraded electricity generation capacity, which was to have ended in December 2003, has been extended to the end of 2004. World Bank information analyst in Zambia, Ernest Matongo, told IRIN that the Bank and other partners were "supporting government and Zesco [Zambia Electricity Supply Commission] in particular as the implementing agency, in rehabilitating the power infrastructure" in the country. "There are a number of partners that have put in money and the programme has been going on for some time. It was to have closed in December, but some of the work was not completed so it was extended to the end of 2004," he added. "Different partners are supporting different efforts, but on the part of the Bank, we are supporting the rehabilitation of the Kafue Gorge generating plant and the rehabilitation of the [electricity] distribution network," Matongo noted. The intervention by the Bank and other partners was necessary as "the power plants had not been maintained for quite some time". "Most of the infrastructure was degraded, so it was very important that this work was done because it affected the electricity generation capacity of Zesco... they could not generate to the capacity that was needed. The Kafue Gorge plant [in southern Zambia] is supposed to generate about 900 megawatts of power, yet they were not able to [produce] that amount because of the state of the plant," Matongo said. The US $205-210 million project would help maintain a steady supply of electricity to Zambian industry and households. But the region also stood to gain from improved power generation in Zambia. Matongo said that the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) scheme would benefit from World Bank efforts to develop power supply interconnections between Zambia and its neighbours. "The Bank is supporting a project to strengthen the Zambia-[Democratic Republic of] Congo interconnector. The Tanzania-Zambia interconnector is a new project by government and we are supporting that as well. Most countries in Southern Africa have interconnections through the SAPP. The Zambia-Tanzania interconnector will help the countries in the east, Kenya and Tanzania, which have power shortfalls. They will be able to benefit from power generated in this region," Matongo added. He commented that the "Congo has a lot of hydro-electricity capacity, and that interconnector [Zambia-DRC] is meant to strengthen its capacity to transmit power mainly to South Africa".