Sensitise public about electricity

The number of electrocutions in rural areas keeps increasing, thanks to the rural electrification programme which has brought low voltage power in the vicinity of most households.

This blessing has quickly turned into a curse as every villager, desperate to escape the cost of buying paraffin has connected their “houses” to the national grid!

To do this power connection, one simply needs to acquire barbed wire, binding wire or abandoned telephone line wires and a light bulb! It is difficult to get accurate figures, but it is certain that dozens of people, mainly women and children have fallen victim to these dangerous connections.

There is urgent need for Umeme to sensitise people about the correct channels to be followed in getting power connection.
Whether those poverty-stricken folks will afford the high cost of the power is another story! Meanwhile the carnage continues unchecked!

Masokoyih Watiti,
masokoyihw@yahoo.co.uk