ENERGY and Power Development minister Advocate Fortune Chasi has hinted that government is looking ways of increase power generation with the view of reducing load shedding in critical institutions such as hospitals, health related organisations and schools.
Chasi on Thursday told the Senate that it was unfortunate that health institutions were not spared of the 12 hour load shedding.
I want to inform the House that the decision to load shed is a very painful one for both Government and our utility. In terms of policy, we try as much as possible to avoid critical institutions like hospitals, schools and related institutions but I would like the House to understand that we are in a very difficult situation in terms of availability of power,” the Energy Minister said.
The Energy Minister added that they are looking into ways of avoiding load shedding in the critical areas.
“So in short, the policy is that we try as much as possible to avoid load shedding of critical institutions but technically, it may not be avoidable in some circumstances. But we will also try and look in a case by case basis to see whether there is a possibility of avoiding that particular situation,” Chasi said.
Traditionally major Hospitals across the country are allocated separate power grids. However, this seems not to be case as they are enduring the power shortages like the rest of the country.
Institutions located close to the health institutions such as the National Blood Services Zimbabwe’s(NBSZ) operations have been crippled at the back of the power crisis.
Health institutions operating in the Belgravia area of Harare reportedly appealed to the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (ZESA) to spare them of load-shedding to save lives and ensure they continue in business.
