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Regional link-ups fill the power shortfall: exporting power from Africa to Europe remains a long-term dream. But more regional link-ups based on hydro resources are on the way already reports Humphrey Nkonde.

Article Excerpt
LACK OF RELIABLE electricity or intermittent power supply is considered to be one of constraints to economic development in sub-Saharan Africa. Reliable electricity can promote regional integration, earn Africa foreign exchange from areas in need of electricity such as southern Europe, and also promote sustainable development.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) Economic Outlook for 2006 pegged the growth rate of sub-Saharan Africa at 6.3 per cent. The IMF says the region's growth rate is the fastest the continent has experienced in more than three decades. For instance, there is a looming power deficit in Southern Africa, where all the countries are load shedding.

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Load shedding

Zambia's Minister of Energy and Water Development Felix Mutati said mid-March during the official opening of the 28th meeting of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) in Livingstone, the country's tourist capital, that all the countries in Southern Africa were load shedding. He urged the SAPP to quickly step in to overcome the looming power deficit so that the region's economic growth was not constrained.

The meeting attributed the increase in the demand for electricity in the region to rise in population, unprecedented growth in the mining, construction, commercial and agriculture sectors. Zambia, one of the major sources of power in Southern Africa, will have an...