Malawi: blackouts plague country as drought exposes 98% reliance on hydro power

Large sections of Malawi have been plunged into darkness as water levels at the main hydro power plant fell to critical levels, due to a severe drought, according to its electricity company.

The impoverished southern African country, which relies heavily on hydroelectricity, has been hit by blackouts since last year, but the outrages have recently gotten worse, with the darkness lasting up to 25 hours at a time.

The state-owned Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) said on Thursday that power output was halved as water levels in the Shire river dropped to critical levels.

The water from the river normally generates 300 megawatts of electricity, which accounts for 98% of the country’s supply.

“For the past three weeks, the available capacity was 160 megawatts,” said Escom in a statement.

Affected areas include large parts of the capital Lilongwe and in the second city of Blantyre.

A large number of businesses and hospitals in the country had no choice but to use diesel-powered generators to keep the lights on.

According to the World Bank, just 8% of Malawi’s 17 million people currently have access to electricity.