By Naboth Isaac Niwagaba
apearlnews.com
The Electricity Power Distributors UMEME Uganda Ltd. Kabale Branch Officials have blamed constant power outages on tree cutting that results in breakage of transmission lines.
This was revealed during a dialogue between UMEME officials and Kigezi Action for Development (KAD), a group of activists who had threatened to lead a “peaceful demonstration” in Kabale Town in protest against inconsistent power supply.
The group held a series of social media mobilization conferences as well as designed flyers calling people to join the demonstration scheduled for May 28, 2023. According to information written on one of the flyers, the demonstrators planned to walk with their electronic gadgets to the UMEME offices located in the Central Division of Kabale Municipality.
However, while speaking at the meeting held at Cephas Inn Kabale yesterday, Douglas Mwagale, the UMEME Kabale Branch Operations Manager, and Network Engineer Jonathan Kawooya revealed that the persistent power outages were a result of tree cutting, in which locals damaged transmission lines, cutting off supply in different parts of the district.
“There’s a lot of tree cutting these days, especially in Rubaya subcounty, Katuna Town Council, Butobere, Bunyonyi Road, Mwisi-Kitumba, Rushaki, all in Kabale Municipality, and parts of Bukinda in Rukiga District. When the wrongdoers realize that they have damaged the transmission lines, they run away, leaving both the trees and the damaged power lines, which are usually carrying voltage and therefore dangerous,” Mr. Mwagale said.
He added that sometimes the damaged electric wires electrocute people who are not aware of their presence in the fallen trees.
“Between 2019 and 2020, we lost two people who came into contact with live electric wires that had been brought down by the fallen trees. One was from Bukinda, while the other was from Katuna,” Mwagale said.
During the meeting, Kigezi Action for Development Chairperson Baranabus Tugumisirize outlined challenges faced by the people of Kabale District due to persistent power outages. They included, among others, business losses, insecurity, and loss of property due to an unstable power supply.
Locals, who included Charlotte Kemigisha, Tadeo Masiko, Ronald Nsengimana, Hillary Gumisiriza, and Christmas Turyomurugyendo, accused UMME officials at Kabale Branch Offices of poor customer care, especially while responding to issues raised about the power outages.
“Sometimes when we go to report these issues, the officers at the reception ask us to go to Kampala if we can,” Kemigisha said, while Masiko added that he was once asked to instead register his complaint with a security guard at the UMEME Offices Kabale Branch.
The UMEME Operations Manager for Western Uganda, Paul Ssempiira Ssewava, acknowledged that, as the national power distributor, they had failed to deliver standard services to Ugandans in Kabale District and made an apology for the losses made, especially by the business community. However, SSempiira noted that the power outages are not intentional, as some people had been alleging, adding that UMEME also makes losses when generated electricity is not being used.
“Even UMEME branch offices in Kabale face the same challenges when electricity goes off because we are forced to use generators. We are also losing income when we are not selling the electricity, so we can never cut off supply of the only product we have on the market,” he explained.
On the issue of tree cutting, both Ssempiira and Douglas Mwagale cautioned people against cutting trees near the electricity transmission lines without consulting UMEME officials. “It is illegal and punishable with a fine that can go up to Shs. 400 million,” Ssempiira said.
Mr. Mwagale called upon people to always seek guidance from the UMEME officers, adding that it’s not a crime for one to harvest the trees they planted if it is done with guidance from the experts.
Meanwhile, the UMEME officials announced that they would embark on “vegetation clearing,” in which all trees planted or self-grown within close proximity of the transmission lines will be cut down, beginning next week on Wednesday.
“We shall cut off power on that Wednesday as we clear all the vegetation that is in contact with the power lines and those that are so close to the wires,” Network Engineer Jonathan Kawooya said. He further explained that during the vegetation clearing, power will be cut off in areas of operation, and the exercise will take two days.
The meeting agreed that the activists halt their planned demonstration as they give time to implement the agreed resolutions, especially the vegetation clearing program by the UMEME Officers and mass sensitization about tree planting and cutting in areas crossed by electricity transmission lines.
