For a first-time traveller like me, the terrain to this area, which was declared a district by late President Michael Sata, is both interesting and challenging. If you do not get there by air, the only other way is by water.
Because of this, the district is not an everyday-kind-of-district that everyone is used to. It has abundant water around it, so much that for people to move from one point to the other, they require a boat.
Before it was declared a district, Lunga was part of Samfya. The Zambia Statistics Agency estimated Lunga’s population at 24,005 in 2010, and this was expected to grow to 29,642 by 2020.
Inhabitants live in dense clusters of villages on the islands scattered across the four chiefdoms of Senior Chief Kalimankonde, Chief Kasomalunga, Chief Nsamba, Chief Bwalya Mponda and four other sub-chiefs.
As hard as getting there may be – which may even take days for some due to the choice of boat, the dwellers have to concede to a life without electricity.
“Kuno kwakilafye abakosa [this place is not for the faint-hearted]. It’s very tough here,” says Kelvin Chabu, a resident of the island.
Mr Chabu, who is a local businessman on the island, does not even imagine a bridge or road across the wetlands. “Umusebo teti wise kuno twaliishiba, but tulelombakofye amalaiti [we know a road cannot be built here, all we are asking for is electricity],” he says.
Mr Chabu, who has lived on the island for “many years”, hopes that a time will come when people will stop relying on solar energy and alkaline batteries for electricity.
“That is how we have been living here all along and we are now used to this life. But ndesubila ukuti fingacinjako apa nomba mukwai [I am hopeful that things will change now],” he says. Mr Chabu owns a grocery shop and also trades in locally grown rice.
Since its inception, the Rural Electrification Authority (REA) seeks to provide electricity infrastructure to rural areas using appropriate technologies to contribute to the quality of life of rural communities.
Currently, the authority is implementing projects using grid extension of the existing network, mini-hydro and solar systems to provide electricity to rural areas in Zambia.
In line with its mandate and strategic focus, the authority is in the process of providing electricity to Lunga district using solar mini-grids.
Implementation of phase I of the Lunga solar mini-grid project commenced in 2015, but it has stalled; prompting outcry from residents, including Chief Kasomalunga of the Unga people who has demanded that the authority should expedite the connection of electricity to the island district.
“Iyi project yakale! [This is an old project],” says the traditional leader. He said many meetings have been called in the past to discuss the project, but with very little progress – a scenario he says has left many residents frustrated and hopeless.
Chief Kasomalunga demanded that the REA board of directors, led by its chairperson Likonge Mulenga and management, who recently toured the island, should give him a conclusive time frame when the project will commence and finish.
“It’s not like people have refused this project. They have accepted it wholeheartedly. We are even lucky that we have a new government in place and a new board. If it were those others, maybe I would not have even come. I would have said that I was just going to waste my time, pantu balifilwa! Icalenga na bantu nomba bafulwa ati nililali fikacitika, pantu ku ncende shimbi ficitika mumwakafye umo (The previous group failed and this annoyed people to a point where they started wondering when they would see electricity because in some areas these projects only take a year),” says Chief Kasomalunga.
In response to the demands from the traditional leader, the authority assured that by July this year, transportation of equipment for the construction of a solar mini-grid would commence.
REA chief executive officer Linus Chanda disclosed that the authority has since engaged an American- and Zambian-registered company, Standard Micro Grid, with support from the World Bank, to complete the project.
Without mentioning the total cost of the project and contract, Mr Chanda, who has also explained the challenges that have caused the delay, says the project will be implemented using the public-private partnership model.
“The challenge we have had in the past is that the contractors we have been engaging underestimated the scope of work. But now we are fortunate that the World Bank has come to our aid, and we have found a contractor, and now it’s just a matter of us transporting the equipment. I am confident that we will stick to the timelines,” he said.
In the same vein, the authority modelled a raft that will be used as a vessel to transport project materials to the site. It procured an outboard motor that will help propel the raft and this has since been delivered to the REA warehouse.
Additionally, the authority, with the help of the Zambia Army, will construct docking platforms at Mpanta and Kasomalunga harbours to help ease the loading and offloading of project materials to the island district that has 18 marshes of land, for the construction of the eight mini-grids.
Once completed, the mini-grids will directly benefit Lunga Basic School, Lunga Rural Health Centre, Lunga district offices, Chief Kasomalunga’s palace, the market and shops, churches, and over 880 households.
Not only that!
As part of its mandate to electrify rural areas, Mr Chanda has disclosed that REA has engaged the Technology Development and Advisory Unit (TDAU) of the University of Zambia to conduct a wind resource assessment for a possible wind and solar hybrid power generation plant in Lunga district.
“The energy yield analysis conducted as part of the feasibility study has indicated that it is possible to install a wind turbine at Kasomalunga site to generate power from a solar and wind hybrid system,” he said.
Lunga District Commissioner Mathews Mwewa admits that living on the island is hard, especially for those that are used to town life. He acknowledges that for first-time government workers, adjusting to life on the island is not easy.
“We are in a technologically advanced world where everyone needs to live a better life, especially my officers who may have been raised in a well-to-do family and have been sent here,” he says.
He urged the authority to take advantage of the high levels of water to transport the equipment to the district. “If you keep postponing, you will have challenges when the water levels drop because it won’t be an easy sail on the canal,” he adds.
Mrs Mulenga has also promised that she will ensure that posterity judges her board differently by seeing to it that the Lunga solar mini-grid is implemented as soon as possible.
“There is nothing to show for here and you can see that the people really need electricity. This really gives us an opportunity to focus on delivering on the promises and on our mandate. We have a mandate to bring electricity here, and we are going to do it,” she said.
Standard Micro Grid will be the third contractor to be engaged on the project. The other contractors had their contracts terminated in March 2017 and April 2021 following failure to meet their obligations.
This article was also published in the Zambia Daily Mail newspaper of Saturday, July 10, 2022.
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