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Mali, the West African country is facing incessant power cuts, which has crippled public life. Blackouts are everyday affairs at various durations. That sometimes extends to the whole night
Mali, the West African country is facing incessant power cuts, which has crippled public life. Blackouts are everyday affairs at various durations. That sometimes extends to the whole night. On the flip side, only 50% of the Malian population is affected by the power cuts, strangely because only they have access to electricity, of the roughly 22 million people of the country.
Mali is growing at 3% calculated in terms of GDP. That is not matched up with the infrastructure growth of the impoverished country. Coupled with sporadic jihadist attacks in the country, insecurity looms large. Poor electricity coverage and its erratic supply are having a toll on the country, where the temperature rises to over 40 – degree Celsius during the summer season.
One main fallout of the hot weather and erratic supply of electricity is the difficulty being faced by households and shopkeepers alike in keeping the food particles fresh. This leads to damage to foodstuffs of daily use, adding woes to most of the citizens, who are finding it difficult to meet both ends. There are demonstrations against the impoverished living conditions, particularly in regions like Segou, Sikasso, and Mopti. The inhabitants of these regions have demonstrated this recently by taking large protests to the street. In Gao, lying in the north of the country, power outages have lasted several days in a row.
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https://trendsnafrica.com/mali-to-hold-referendum-of-new-constitution-on-18-june/
https://trendsnafrica.com/un-tells-mali-to-return-to-civilian-rule-fast/
Villages in rural areas often rely on local generators or electricity service providers. But in the cities, the national company is the focus of criticism. The Energy Company of Mali (EDM), is unable to meet the demand for electricity, which is growing by an average of 10% per year, partly due to poor maintenance of thermal power stations. The public sector power utility EDM has accumulated a colossal debt. To address the colossal loss, the West African Development Bank (BOAD) agreed to set up a repayment program worth 45 billion CFA francs (about 68 million euros).
