Regional Councillors in the Zambezi Region have appealed to the Ministry of Mines and Energy to assist in reviving abandoned rural electrification projects initiated by conservancies.

After some conservancies spent millions of their meager resources to pay the contractor to electrify villages within their jurisdictions, not much work was done, and the contractors are nowhere to be found. 

The councillors are now appealing to the government and NORED to help the affected conservancies complete their projects and ensure that the contractors who deserted the sites face the law.

"Contractors ran out; we tried our best here in the regional council, but the problem is that we are not the ones who funded those people; those who funded must do it, but they are not coming forth to open cases against them; they took the money and disappeared. We appeal to the honorable minister to let these projects be completed. People are now steating those ABC cables to go sell them; the poles have been getting rotten since 2016," says Judea Lyabboloma Councillor Hamfrey Divai.

Councillor of Linyanti, Irvin Kabunga, says, "The conservancy, as the other honorable said, has to buy transformers, but we are appealing to the government that they should, at least in the areas where people have started to show interest in getting electricity, inject and assist those areas."

Katima Mulilo Mayor, John Ntemwa, is concerned that despite compounds such as Nova and Lywanyanda being within a 1 kilometer radius of Katima Mulilo town, the areas are not electrified, making the residents there vulnerable to housebreaking and attacks from criminals.

"We have got Lwayaha, which is on the eastern part; we have got Diary; and we have got Nova. These locations are in the dark; specifically, I want to say Nova is plus mminus a kilometer away from town, so time and again we are receiving cases of housebreaking; they attack them when crossing or going there now and then, so those people are in the dark, which is why they are getting attacked."

The acting chief executive officer for NORED, Toiva Shovaleka, said in his response that they do not have the power to institute any criminal cases against contractors they did not contract with.

"So we thought those who have appointed the conservancies were probably within them following the documentation and were in better positions to follow up with these contractors, but we have not gotten any official feedback as to the status of these projects, whether these contractors will come back to complete the projects or what the alternative the alternative will be."