The Parliamentary Cluster on Natural Resources has asked Ministry of Energy to use funds allocated to Malawi Rural Electricity Programme (Marep) for restoration of Kapichira Hydro Power Plant which got damaged due to impacts of Cyclone Ana.

The Cluster’s co-chairperson Welani Chilenga says destruction of Plant is an emergency issue and requires an urgent attention.

Speaking after having an interface with officials from Escom, Egenco and the Ministry Chilenga said the K15.3 billion that Egenco needs should be allocated urgently to resolve power challenges Malawians are currently experiencing.

“As a Cluster, we are proposing that government should use the money the money that is allocated for Marep, for the past we haven’t seen much done through Marep projects.

“We cannot continue connecting people when we don’t have power we should first of all have the 130 megawatts back then we can continue connecting people, if we connect them without power, it will be useless,” said Chilenga.

But responding to the plea, Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Energy Patrick Matanda said the Ministry is weighing options on where to source the funds.

He said: “As we speak now, government is looking at the options in terms of what resources in this emergency, but at the same we need also to indicate that World Bank has already shown interest to help.”

“We are hoping that we can get those resources quickly as at the same time we are also looking at how we can finance from government sources.”

Egenco Chief Executive Officer William Liabunya said the Plant will only start running if funds are readily available to commence restoration works.

“The major hurdle that we have out this problem is that financing, we need financing and that’s what we emphasized to the Cluster.

“If financing is available it means it means in the shortest possible time we should have contractors on the ground and then we would estimate that in four to six months time we should have the station running after we conclude negotiations and procurement of the contract,” Liabunya said.

The Plant, which stopped functioning due to impacts of floods caused by Cyclone Ana, was adding 129.6 megawatts of power to the national grid.