Chairperson of the Kavango West Regional Council, Filipus Tenga, expressed disappointment in the status of electricity distribution in the region during the Northern Regional Electricity Distributor (NORED) induction workshop that was held at Nkurenkuru.

Chairperson of the Kavango West Regional Council, Filipus Tenga, shared that the lack of electricity and electricity outages is hindering the region's development and negatively affecting livelihoods, education, and business opportunities.

"Electricity must reach the people. And sometimes I also feel like I ask myself, if NORED is there for development and if NORED is there to distribute electricity, how do you measure your progress? Did you really? Since NORED was established until today, if you measure your progress, we cannot be at 50%, no. Because NORED has existed now for more than 10 years. We must talk about at least 95%. At least 95%. But if we go back until today, we are at 50%. Then we are not moving, and sometimes I ask myself, NORED and Namwater. You are there to give people services. And those services, those people, they don't get those services for free. If you put electricity in my house, I will have to buy my electricity. What's the problem? Bring the business; we buy. That's what we need, but to bring that business to the people is a problem."

He added that communities are raising concerns about ongoing electricity shortages and have not received satisfying answers.

Tenga advised NORED to first cater to areas where electricity is fully utilised.

"Why should we give electricity to the person? There is some certain electricity somewhere, but that electricity is not used. People are not using it. Why can't you give it to the people who can buy electricity and profit from that? Then you invest where there are fewer customers. That's what a business principle means. But electricity is a privilege. But this privilege is very important. As you say yourself, electricity is for development. If we don't talk about electricity, there is no way we can talk about development. So that's why we are saying 'electricity', even if it's a privilege, but please, we need that privilege in our communities."

The chairperson of the NORED board, Johannes Uushini, shared that the board is cognisant and remains concerned about power supply interruptions to many local authorities, including the Town of Nkurenkuru.

"We are very much aware of these interruptions and many other towns, and for Nkurenkuru, we are very much aware of the reason why there are always interruptions, and this is Nkurenkuru as a town does not have access or does not have its own station but rather is connected to a rural network."

Uushini shared that the dilemma demands a serious conversation with a broad range of key stakeholders to arrest the anomaly, which currently extends beyond NORED's financial abilities.