By KENNEDY MUPESENI –
ZAMBIA and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) are in the process  of  forming  the  Luapula River Authority (LRA) to manage shared water resources between the two countries.
Zambia’s Energy Minister David Mabumba said the two countries were in discussion regarding the formation of a river authority to look after Luapula River joint resource.
“As you know the Luapula River which is shared with the DRC has immense hydro potential which both countries want to tap but coming up with an authority will enable us utilize the water resource effectively.
“So we are in discussions with that country and very soon we will travel to Kinshasa to finalise documents to come up with special purpose vehicle to look after the water resource as modalities for the hydro project,” Mr Mabumba.
Mr Mabumba said recently that the country wanted to realise 1000 megawatts (MW) from the Luapula River Hydro-Power Project estimated to cost US$4 billion.
The Minister said in its quest to increase access to electricity, Government was in the process of reforming both the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) and the Rural Electrification Authority (REA).
“Plans to reposition REA and review ERB Act have advanced; a cabinet memo will soon be issued which will see REA start attracting private sector partnership as well as device bill collection modalities.
“We would like to see even thatched houses connected and in some instances use barter system to pay bills because we want the authority to be more flexible. The produce such as beans, groundnuts and others can be used to settle bills,” Mr Mabumba said.
He is concerned that more than 52 years of independence the electricity penetration rate for rural areas was at four per cent hence the need for more efforts to address the inequality.