3, 240 Chinsali households benefit from REA project

THREE thousand two hundred and forty out of 5, 940 households a e enefitted fro t e ural lectrification Authority (REA) initiative under the World Bank funded Electricity Service Access Project (ESAP) in Muchinga Province.

ESAP which was implemented in September last year would connect , households to the National grid and is the project is expected to run for five years R A director engineering, Patric Mubanga said the authority had as of June this year managed to connect half of the targeted number with Na onde having the highest power connections Mr Mubanga said with the latest statistics rom esco, the authority would hit , and close connections by the end of this year. “With this project we have captured 10 schools and staff houses and two palaces in Chief Nkweto and Mubanga,” he said Mr Mubanga made the revelations in Chinsali on Tuesday when R A staff and Special assistant to the president for project administration and implementation, Andrew Chela paid a courtesy on Muchinga Permanent Secretary Joyce Bwacha. He said REA would come back in the province for the second phase covering a distance of six kilometres so that the people that would not benefit from SAP were captured. Mr Mubanga said under SAP, R A had included a ready board which is a meter meant for non-permanent houses where standard internal wiring could not be done including grass thatched houses. And Mr Mubanga said R A was also wor ing on four pro ects in Muchinga among them Musanya in Chinsali others in Isoka and Nakonde. “We will push that we complete the projects so that people are connected, people really want to have power, after this e ercise will see where we can make improvements as R A,” said Mr Mubanga And Ms Bwacha said people in the province were happy with the project which had benefitted about , households. Ms Bwacha appealed to REA to expedite the Musanya project that was being underta en on the K1.4 billion Chinsali-IsokaNakonde road. She said a contractor for Chinsali-Isoka-Nakonde China Seventh Rail Group of companies was already on site and had put up a uarry but there was a need for electricity so that the crushing plant starts wor ing