I very much doubt that I will be getting a plausible explanation from the power distribution firm, Umeme Uganda Ltd, but I will all the same try.
After all, we live in a country where service providers imagine that their service is a favour for which we should be eternally grateful even when it is at the poorest.
We have been experiencing power outages on a daily basis for the last two months in Jinja. The power will either go off at 7pm, and get back on at around 9pm or go off at around 9pm and get back on at around 11pm.
Sometimes it never gets back on until morning hours. Even when that happens, there is no guarantee that we will have uninterrupted service for the rest of the day.
It looks like we have returned to the mid 2000s when Uganda suffered its worst power shortages. At the time power needs stood within the region of 360Megawatts yet generation at both Kiira and Nalubaale dams stood at only 120 Megwatts as at October 2006, down from 330 Megawatts. Back then, Umeme would publish load- shedding schedules ranging from 12 to 24 hours.
The outages considerably reduced with the coming on stream of the Bujagali power station. Cases of outages had been expected to be a thing of the past following the commissioning last year of the Isimba Power Station, but no.
It seems to have worsened the situation, at least for the residents of Jinja.
The most annoying bit in all this is that Umeme is operating as if it is business as usual! They will neither explain nor apologise for this inconvenience and nuisance that we have to suffer.
The effects of these outages have affected the operations of the National Water and Sewerage Corporation, which meant water shortages in the town.
Isaac Mufumba,
4th Lane, Jinja
