The Electricity Generation Company (Egenco) says by planting trees and other activities that harness the power of nature could play a major role in limiting climate change.
The power generation form is expecting to plant over 25 000 trees this year which will be spread along the Shire River’s feeder rivers and catchment areas of Balaka, Tedzani and Nkula. Egenco chief executive officer William Liyabunya speaking to Malawi News Agency on Tuesday said natural climate solutions, such as planting trees, better land management and grasslands along the Shire River where most hydroelectric plants tap power, could help reduce some of the challenges such as siltation and low water levels.
He, therefore, assured Malawians of continued sufficient power production even after the current rainy season comes to and end as a number of interventions being undertaking in the various power production plants as well as the use of alternative power generation mechanism are bearing fruit.
Said Liyabunya: “We have now completed the rehabilitation of Nkula A Power Plant. Currently, we are rehabilitating Tedzani 1 and 2 as well as adding five megawatts. This is besides the diesel generators contributing 30 megawatts to the national grid.” He said currently, the company is generating an average of 250-270 megawatts, adding that with all the interventions in place, the current power production will go up.
Liyabunya then called on Malawians to unite in preserving the environment which is a major source of hydro electric power. “Let the responsibility of environmental management through tree planting be shared among all Malawians with much emphasis on the national river banks and most especially along the Shire,” he said. On his part, Minister of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining, Aggrey Massi commends both the public and private sectors for participating in environmental management endeavours this year. Massi said since President Peter Mutharika launched the tree planting exercise in December 2018, a number of stakeholders have participated in the programme. This year, government has put a target of 60 million trees to be planted by various stakeholders such as Egenco.
(Source: The Nation, Thursday, 28 February 2019)