Rumonge : power cuts and load shedding paralyze economic activities

Residents, traders and financial institutions operating in Rumonge (southwest Burundi) say they are recording enormous losses. This is due to the instability of electricity in the province. Regideso, the only state company in charge of electricity production, is having difficulty regularly supplying the necessary electricity and must carry out load shedding, in addition to frequent outages. INFO SOS Médias Burundi

Complaints come from both economic operators and residents.

“It is impossible to work without electricity in our hair saloons. Sometimes we only have electricity for two hours for the whole day. How can we work then. It’s impossible!”, complain hairdressers in the provincial town center.

Same thing for bar and restaurant operators. They indicate that customers are disappointed not to find refrigerated drinks at a time when Rumonge is one of the localities with high temperatures.

“Customers come and ask for a cold beer, in vain. We cannot satisfy them even though that was our role. And if we use generators, the fuel is expensive. There we are forced to revise upwards the prices of our products, which the authority does not accept. It’s a difficult situation,” say managers of bars, restaurants and hotels.

In financial institutions such as banks and microfinance, we observe the same problem. But they say they have no choice but to buy fuel and work at a loss.

“It makes less sense for a bank or financial institution to spend hours at a standstill. We are forced to use generators. But it is extremely expensive because fuel is expensive at the pump. there is none, so we buy it on the black market for up to 20,000 francs per liter,” indignantly say managers and employees of financial institutions based in this province in southwest Burundi.
The official price of a liter of gasoline is 4000 francs.

Public and administration services which do not have generators say that employees are forced to go on disguised leave.

And those that sell perishable products such as fish, meat and milk lament that they are suffering heavy losses.

Regideso is struggling to produce the necessary electricity and must resort to load shedding to favor centers with large population centers.

During oral questions before parliament, the minister in charge of energy recently recognized the problem. But he promised it would soon be resolved.

“The power stations of Ruzibazi, Nyemanga and others that the country has are not enough. But there is work on new dams of Jiji-Murembwe and Rusumo Falls. They will soon be operational, things will get better,” reassured Minister Ibrahim Uwizeye.

The small East African nation is still struggling to find a lasting solution to the entire energy crisis despite promises from its leaders, whom their opponents accuse of being “oblivious and selfish”.