To reduce the power blackouts in the Mushindamo district, The Rural Electrification Authority (REA) will soon set up a substation for the end-users of the Kipushi Border 2021 Grid Intensification Project to maximize project benefits.
This follows a complaint by Mushindamo District Commissioner, Andrew Kalangwa that any slight thunder during rainy season caused power black outs and that it took two days for Zesco officers to work on the faults.
REA board chairperson Brenda Makai said REA would engage ZESCO to see how best they could work together to put up a substation in the area that would help to reduce the power blackouts.
Ms Makai said this at the end of the REA board’s tour of the Copperbelt and Northern Provinces yesterday.
She encouraged female pupils at Mushindamo Girls Technical School not to be swayed away by assertions that engineering was male-dominated.
“We are happy that the supply of electricity has boosted social and economic benefits to the livelihood of the people,” she said.
Speaking during the inspection of a school, Mushindamo Secondary School head-teacher Middleton Ngazhi has said that the connection of electricity to the school had enhanced skills training, as pupils were now able to undertake metal fabrication, home economics and information technology and communication classes.
Mr Ngazhi said with the introduction of free education, the school had also recorded an increased enrolment from 150 to about 255.
A grade 12 pupil at the said school, Jessy Mwila, 16, said electricity had eased their work as it enabled them to use electrical tools that they could not use before.
Jessy further said that from the knowledge she had acquired so far she was able to manufacture a desk.
