By SYLVESTER MWALE –

THE Zambia Consumers Association (ZACA) has welcomed President Edgar Lungu’s call for Zesco to undertake the ongoing load shedding equitably amongst its consumers.
ZACA Information and publicity secretary Juba Sakala said his organisation has noted with sadness that some areas experienced prolonged hours of power outages than others.
President Lungu directed Zesco to shed and distribute electricity equitably among all Zambians as the country grapples with a power generation deficit.
The president noted that some people in affluent residential areas were privileged to long hours of power than those living in townships.
“ZACA agrees with the President’s concern of this unbalanced load shedding. Nevertheless ZACA urges Zesco to fairly give power equally to all consumers regardless of areas and status,” Mr Sakala said.
“Some areas like Riverside residential  and other suburbs, it’s about eight hours a day while some areas it’s about two hours in the same town.”
He cited Lusaka where  Libala, Kabwata, Chilenje and other suburbs were experiencing eight hours of blackout per day while, areas like Emasdale, Rhodes Park and Long Acres had shorter periods of load shedding.
Mr Sakala said his association was aware of efforts being made by Zesco under difficult circumstances.
He appealed to the Government to consider waiving tax on gas stoves and fridges as well as solar equipment so that companies importing them could sell them at affordable prices.
“While we look at immediate solutions, the Government should seriously consider constructing a coal power station to compliment the hydro-power station as we do not  know how the rainfall will be in 2015/16 and years to come,” he said.
One coal power station is scheduled to be commissioned in September this year which will produce about 300 megawatts.