Ora county (Zombo district) Member of Parliament Biyika Lawrence Songa has castigated all those blaming WENRECO for the power shortages in West Nile sub-region.
Addressing the media in Paidah town, Songa noted that whereas some people claim the power challenges in the region are as a result of what they called incompetent WENRECO, the company is entirely not to blame.
WENRECO also known as West Nile Rural Electrification Company was in 2003 contracted by government to supply electricity to West Nile sub-region. The region however, recently suffered power shortages due to lack of fuel in Electoromax, a company contracted by government to generate thermo power to supplement Nyagak I which at the same time faced a mechanical problem in one of its turbines. This turbine has however, since been restored.
Arising from that erratic situation which lasted some days, a group of people from West Nile petitioned the speaker of parliament blaming WENRECO for erratic power supply.
However, according to Songa who is also a member of the parliamentary budget Committee, it is wrong to blame WENRECO because it’s role is to distribute power that is generated.
“Its like WENRECO being given 10 water bottles. When given, that’s what you distribute. If they get finished, I stop there and if there are more people, it means I need more water bottles! This is the situation WENRECO finds itself in. Many people don’t know that WENRECO is a distributor not generator of power. If you give him low electricity, he will supply what you have given him and when it gets finished, he stops there” he said.
The MP who said is an expert on electricity issues having worked in the sector for years, said the solution to the power shortages is for Electoromax to do it’s work fully so that WENRECO gets what to supply.
“Electoromax should be put to task to produce power and give it to WENRECO the distributor. Let there be fuel. Otherwise, in our motion, that’s why we want Electoromax to be relieved of the component of (procurement) fuel and we get an independent supplier. This is what we put in our motion. WENRECO is not the problem at all” he said.
The member also called for investment in other energy sources such as hydro, wind, thermo and possibly nuclear energy so that there is constant and steady power supply in the region and the country at large. He commended government for embarking on Nyagak 3 project which he said would boost power generation to the required capacity. He however, urged government to ensure that there is a mechanism of power evacuation in place at Nyagak 3 in order to avoid paying for dim energy.
 Member of Parliament Biyika Lawrence Songa has castigated all those blaming WENRECO for the power shortages){kind=link}