Malawi’s President Peter Mutharika has blamed blackouts across the country on what he called the “ignorance” of previous administrations, local media report. “The problem with energy sector is due to ignorance that the previous governments had towards the sector in the last 50 years,” President Peter Mutharika was quoted as saying on Monday.
He made the comments while opening a new solar plant in Salima, central Malawi, which has been funded by a Canadian firm. The 60-megawatt solar plant will feed electricity into the main grid and is envisaged to benefit about 1.6 million people, The Nation newspaper reports.
The southern African country has been relying on hydro-electric power, 95% of which is produced on the Shire River, the sole outlet of Lake Malawi.
The lake has, however, experienced low water levels and siltation which have reduced production from the installed generation capacity of 350 megawatts to around 200 megawatts.
