Eskom throws the switch on the country’s basic rights

IF YOU’RE sitting in the northern suburbs of Joburg bemoaning your fate as the electricity blackouts roll out across South Africa, consider this: they are having a disproportionate effect on the poor.

The reality is that access to electricity mirrors the unequal distribution of health services.

More and more South African homes have been lit up since the advent of democracy, with the number increasing by almost 10 percent in the past 10 years alone.

The percentage of households connected to the electricity grid increased from 77.1 percent in 2002 to 85 percent last year.

While urban areas have seen a decline in the use of wood and paraffin for cooking, rural areas continue to depend on these unsustainable forms of energy. In Limpopo, 4.5 out of every 10 households rely on these and, in the Eastern Cape, a little more than two in 10.

We know that electrification improves the quality of life. The use of electricity – not just for cooking, but for lighting, preserving food and watching television – leads to socioeconomic benefits, including access to information, greater opportunities to take advantage of education, improvements in health because of safer sources of heat and light, and improved security at home and in areas around the home.

Many studies also suggest the use of electricity has a direct effect in economic benefits.

In the season of matric and tertiary exams, electricity allows pupils and students to study at night – increasing the time spent on education and improving their chances of achieving better results.

Access to communication improves as people are able to charge their phones. Electricity also enables people to expand businesses by continuing production or the provision of services after hours.

The increased safety provided by connection to the electricity grid is particularly important for children. Fire-related burns are responsible for about 265 000 deaths a year across the world, with more than 90 percent occurring in developing or in low- and middle-income countries. About 1 300 of these deaths are among young South Africans, according to the Household Energy Safety Association of South Africa.

The Medical Research Council reports that South Africa has a high rate of childhood burns, leading to as many as 1 300 deaths a year.

It says about 1,6m people a year experience burns – many of them preventable. Most of the victims are young children in poorer communities.

Risk factors include overcrowding, inadequate electrification and the use of paraffin and wood fires.

Beyond the home, the provision of electricity outside the home means health services are not interrupted and can be extended at clinics, while allowing improve- ments in the storage of vaccines and medicines.

There is a significant effect on the health of rural communities following the introduction of electricity. Apart from a drop in the incidence of energy and lightingrelated accidents, access to electricity – and therefore to media such as radio and television – also improves awareness of healthcare issues.

There is anecdotal evidence of a reduction in pollution in the home – and a linked reduction in respiratory diseases.

It should come as no surprise that the World Health Organisation regards health as a universal indicator of progress in the UN Sustainable Energy for All initiative.

Measuring an indicator such as access to energy highlights, correctly, the crucial role of access to sufficient energy supply in ensuring the basic conditions of health and livelihoods.

By 2011, more than 80 percent of South African households had access to electricity.

Just as household access is not universal, so too do our health services have uneven access to electricity.

This limits their ability to provide services after hours, to support a cold chain, and to use essential medical equipment that requires electrical power.

We urgently need to look at cleaner, renewable sources of energy for communities and for public infrastructure such as clinics, hospitals, schools and tertiary education settings.

As the power blackouts continue, they are a reminder that for many South Africans, the lack of access to electricity is the norm.

For millions more, the high cost of electricity inhibits access, with increases in tariffs being above the inflation rate since the 27 percent increase in 2009. This is a structural obstacle to access that has far-reaching repercussions for poorer municipalities and households, who are deprived of their right to a better life.

There are also gender effects with this lack of access: women and girls are heavily affected as they have to spend excessive amounts of time collecting wood for cooking and heating.

This has not only an educational and economic impact – as the time given to this activity could be spent on education or income generation – but a safety impact. The search for fuel takes women and girls into areas that are often isolated and risky, making them vulnerable to violence and assault.

The electricity crisis that began in 2008 shows no signs of easing.

South Africans are right to demand answers and better services. It is not acceptable that a service that affects the safety of children, the time, safety and opportunities of women and girls, and the health of us all is allowed to lurch from one crisis to the next.

We deserve so much better than the leadership of Eskom can provide.

It is time that Eskom was forced to take on board the views of the collective intellectual capital of the country working on energy, as it clearly cannot cope on its own.

Access to energy and electricity is far more than a mere utility: it has a real effect on the health of the nation.

It is time that Eskom stops harming our health.

Savera Kalideen is senior advocacy officer at Soul City Institute. Follow @SoulCity_SA.