We would like to register our appreciation that government implementing a $3.5 million (K2.5 billion) solar panel project in some health facilities nationwide to minimise the impact of the worst power crisis since independence.
It is obvious that this is a firefighting initiative to save lives and drugs; and facilitate delivery of healthcare services that are only possible with power.
Indeed, half a loaf is better than none, and better late than never. But beneath this benevolence there still lies a story of gloom. desolation and death. The solar power will not power every health facility in the country.
We are talking here about health facilities from Nsanje to Chitipa; from Mchinji to Nkhotakota, which can no longer store basic drugs whose potency rapidly deteriorates when above a certain temperature.
We are talking about some vital surgical procedures that cannot take place in the absence of power, however urgent they may be to conduct them to save lives.
We long stopped mourning over lost revenue streams by the manufacturing sector and government because industry is down to its knees. We long stopped crying for the provision of electricity for domestic use; to run barber shops; welding shops; maize mills; and more, which depend on power to operate and which put bread on the tables of millions of households.
It is now almost a miracle to wake up in the morning and find that the refrigerator in the home is up and running. That is why with the solar panel programme on the cards our question is how long will it take to materialise?
We wish such a programme was mooted and implemented yesterday.
That why our concern now is that the longer it takes to implement the project, the higher the risk to lives.
Most importantly, however, we call for concerted efforts to sharply cut the power outages because the cost of the current situation in terms of lives, jobs, as well as the general economic growth and development of the country.