Campaign to conserve electricity a ‘success’

The Herald, March 11, 1991 SWITCH off Switches, the electricity conservation campaign launched by the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources and Development last year, was a success and introduced an appreciation among consumers of the need to conserve energy, the Zesa general manager, Dr Sydney Gata, said last week.

Although it was difficult to measure or quantify its effect, the campaign’s message, aired on radio and television and carried on posters and in news publications, was a powerful one and helped cultivate in consumers a habit for saving energy, said Dr Gata in an interview at the end of a two-day World Energy Council meeting in Harare.

The Zesa general manager, who is also the WEC regional coordinator, however, criticised the world’s nations for failing to move as a single community in checking environmental degradation and pollution caused in the quest for energy.

“Some regions of the world have not appreciated the seriousness of the situation. And it is not just the governments which are the culprits, but also their people, industrial concerns and energy utilities.

“For a long time, we have not taken sufficient cognisance of the consequence to the environment of the manner we extract, transport and utilise energy, particularly fossil-based fuels.”

This was a consequence of the technologies which were not “environmentally friendly” and were adopted by developing countries without considering the technologies’ negative impact.

The series of meetings by WEC member countries were a “bottom up” approach during which energy strategies and recommendations would thereafter be compiled and synthesised into a world report to be discussed at the WEC congress in Madrid, Spain, next year.

LESSONS FOR TODAY

◆ The Switch Off Switches off campaign is a very useful tool in saving electricity especially now when countries are increasingly finding it difficult to meet demand resulting in periodic power outages or load

shedding.

◆ Apart from promoting energy saving, the campaign also enables energy users to monitor the impact of changing user behaviour on energy use.

◆ It also reduces demand for non-renewable energy fuels such as coal, especially in countries like Zimbabwe that have thermal power stations.