From a young age, Tchakisoni Damitoni, 26, from Kachono Village, Traditional Authority Chadza in Lilongwe has the urge to have light throughout the night. Whenever he left Mitundu Trading Centre around 6pm to his village, he could see that people were enjoying life with electricity around them.
“I wanted to move freely during night-time and not be afraid of darkness just like city people or those within major trading centres. But because my village does not have the previlege of electricity, it was just a dream,” says Damitobni.
He says he always admire how the electricity grids were made. One day in 2018, as he was sitting on the veranda on his grass-thatched house, the father of one told his wife about his idea to produce electricity in the village.
Explains Damitoni: “Everyone thought I was going crazy, but I did not give up. I had to make sure my dream to see my village lit came true.”
In May 2018, alongside his brother Alfred, they decided to contribute money to get a 12 volts solar battery, two watt, six volts solar panel and wires to do the task. The battery and wires accumulated cost was K19, 000 while the panel was almost K10,000. “I had to find trees that could be used as poles for off-grid solution as my aim was to connect about 10 houses. I advised everyone who was connected to only use the electricity for lighting their homes,” says Damitoni.
He says his biggest frustration in the country is that most Malawians, especially those living in rural areas, are not connected to the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) grid.
According to the 2018 Population and Housing Census, just about 12 percent of Malawi’s population of 17.6 million uses grid power for lighting, with some 6 percent relying on solar energy.
However, rural localities, which host about 84 percent of the country’s population, are disproportionately affected by being excluded from the grid powered by Escom.
According to the Department of Energy Affairs, only 4 percent of the rural majority have access to electricity 40 years since Escom rolled out the Malawi Rural Electrification Programme in 1980.
Damitoni says his peers in Kachono Village have urge to do small businesses such as barbershops and video showrooms, but tgheir exclusion from the Escom grid is a big let down. “They have tried to use solar panels to make these business work. However, they still need electricity which is powerful to enable them make the money they need,” he says.
As a baker and owner of the only tea room in the are, Damitoni says his idea to produce electricity was also triggered by his passion for the business.
“There are people who came to the tea room in the evening because of the lighting. If it were dark or if I were using a lamp, I dought if the business would have grown. Malawians need to use their ideas to make life easier fro them,” he says.
The rural inverter says he has always believed in developing others for the world to move forward. As such, his wish is to connect to 20 more houses if resources allow.
Irene Lekimani is one woman in the area who says cooking at night has been easy with the light. She says: ” We can cook at any time. We no longer rely on natural light to make supper and our chidren do schoolwork and read during the night.”
Tiyankhulenji Maudeni says she is now bakes fritters at any time unlike in the past when she used to bake them around 4 pm to be sold the next day.
Damitoni says the power is turned on at 6pm and turned off at 6am. The idea of developing an off-grid solution in his village has made him an ammbassador of energy in his community. The standard 5 dropout says he has never attended any lessons on electricity and what he knows are the negative and positive sides of the battery and how to connect wires.
Damitoni says: “Life is simple if you want it to be. I would encourage young people to be iinovative for their communities, not only for themselves, and together we will malawi great.”
Source: The Nation_Tuesday, 7 April, 2020_by Angella Phiri