Professor Clive Chirwa writes…
Hi Fellows. This is not a surprise to me. When I raised these issues, you wanted to issue me with a red card.
Now, politicians are calling us out to perform.
1) I have been talking about the useless Kariba dam rehabilitation. Wasting money that Zambia hasn’t got is nearing $1 billion, according to the EU office in Brussels. I am still waiting for a response.
2) Not trusting your own is also a problem. I have solutions, and we can do it. But you have to be serious. Over the past 25 years, I have given close to 100 solutions to many engineering problems that would have moved Zambia to another level. None has been implemented. But when foreigners present an idea like that, everybody jumps and implements the suggested by foreigners. This sickness in our heads must be eradicated.
The system the Chinese are talking about is the closed loop power generation. Where you utilise an external power source to prop up the head to be used in the power generation. What you have to make sure is that the energy differential is positive minimum 1.5 times for the system to be efficient.
3) This year, while in Zambia, I wanted to see the minister of energy. I wanted to see the managing Director ZESCO. None wanted to see me. I even went to see the lady permanent secretary who in the end sent her secretary to tell me that she was very busy. I even had a meeting with ERB DG, who even gave me the names of the key people at the ministry. But I had no luck. What I wanted was to give them one of my solutions for Kariba costing $ 65 million by using the same closed loop system that the Chinese were telling the President about by Introducing a mechanically generated head over the penstokes entry locations.
4) The solar farms are the simplest to implement. I approached REA many times in 2015 while I was on sabbatical at CBU. We had numerous meetings but all in vein.
5) Let us be serious. Zambia is not supposed to be experiencing loadshedding. The usage space is just too small vis-a-vis production. We must seriously sit down and look at the entire power generation components through transmission to end users. This is very simple for a Zambian transmission system that uni-directional.
Let us do it. I can help. Let us have a team to solve this. No bla bla bla…but action people are needed. I can chair the team. We cannot be embarrassed like this in public.
Best regards
Prof Clive Chirwa
12 July 2024.