Zambia Hit by Nationwide Power Blackout
Pastor Dale Morgan
Zambia Hit by Nationwide Power Blackout*
By JOSEPH J. SCHATZ
The Associated Press
Monday, January 21, 2008; 5:17 PM
LUSAKA, Zambia -- Zambia was plunged into darkness Monday night in what
appeared to be the second nationwide power outage in three days.
The electricity network went down at about 7:30 p.m. and was restored
about four hours later. There was no immediate explanation for the blackout.
On Saturday, Zambia was without electricity for about eight hours,
leaving more than 300 miners temporarily trapped underground in the
country's Copperbelt province. It was not immediately known if any
miners had been trapped underground Monday night.
The country's power authority said there had been a "high voltage"
occurrence on the network, but was still investigating. It also was
unclear if the second blackout was caused by the same problem or if the
outages were connected to regional problems with electricity supply.
Neighboring Zimbabwe, where power and water outages occur daily, was
also hit by a nationwide power outage over the weekend, and worsening
power cuts in South Africa have caused economic losses and chaos across
the country.
In Zambia, which relies on hydroelectricity, however, national blackouts
are rare, though they sometimes occur in poorer areas of the capital.
Large parts of South Africa are suffering blackouts often lasting
several hours. Utility company Eskom says demand is simply too high for
it to keep up with.
Eskom said Sunday it had stopped supplying electricity to Zimbabwe,
Botswana and Namibia because of the dire shortage at home. Normally
about 95 percent is used locally and the rest sold abroad.