Shed off those practices that are costing us a lot 

A few weeks ago, together with colleagues from Umeme, I visited Gomba to engage our host, His Lordship Bishop Michael Lubowa, the bishop of Central Buganda.

Our mission was to talk to the man of God about service and to seek his support to address the chronic vice of vandalizing the electricity network to steal copper wires and other electrical equipment, and siphoning transformer oil in Mpigi and Mityana districts. The same practice is prevalent in some other parts of Uganda.

During the conversation, we deliberated on what motivates the perpetrators of this risky venture. It emerged that some of the copper wires ended up in the hands of artisans to make cloth hangers for the local market. Imagine the entire planned network supplying electricity to many in the community including schools, hospitals and businesses being disconnected for days because someone cut part of it to make hangers for sale at Shs 500 a piece!

Such crimes are simple in nature but carry hefty penalties not only for the individuals but also the economy, which is already bleeding and struggling to provide key services such as electricity, water, and healthcare to its countrymen and women.

According to Bank of Uganda, the economy has been stable but tougher times lay in wait. Bishop Lubowa, clearly astonished about how someone would bring down an entire electricity network to harvest cables for hangers, called for more collaborative efforts with stakeholders to bring the culprits to book.

“Reliability of electricity is key for several economic activities in an area like ours because people mill maize while others use electricity in many other activities to generate income. It is unfortunate that these cables are ending up on the market as hangers. As members of the community, we are vigilant and have even created a WhatsApp group about reliability. I call for more collaborative efforts amongst stakeholders including the police, judiciary, and you, the utilities. We will continue to rally the masses to keep such infrastructure because it serves us,” remarked the bishop.

On a sad note, these vandalism cases are surging on a national scale with Western, South Western, Greater Busoga, and central Uganda topping the list, costing the country an average of $700,000 or Shs 2.6 billion annually. In Western Uganda, Mbarara led the pack, followed by Bushenyi, Rukungiri and Kabale districts. Masaka, Mityana, Mukono, Mpigi, Wakiso and Luweero districts registered big vandalism cases while Iganga, Kamuli and Jinja districts topped the list in Eastern Uganda.

The vandals mainly target transformers, insulated cables commonly referred to as ABC cables, conductors (copper and aluminium), feeder pillars, underground cables especially copper, isolators and other accessories.

This has created many outages in the affected areas. The government of Uganda has several initiatives to increase access to the national grid through partnerships with agencies such as the World Bank, AFD, KFW and others through self-funded connections targeting to drive the numbers to almost two million connections on the national grid.

Uganda’s target of 60 per cent electrification by 2030 might elude us because theft and vandalism are impeding electrification. New connections are being slowed down since funding now goes to the replacement of stolen assets and communities suffer increased outages as a result.

Following the adage – “desperate situations call for desperate measures”, the state minister for Energy, Sidronius Okaasai Opolot, has suggested that the network including the lower electricity pole areas be energised so that current can shock the vandals.

“The country is losing a lot of electricity infrastructure. Let us improvise and energise the entire network so that these vandals can be shocked whenever they attempt to steal electricity infrastructure. They shouldn’t die but get repulsed by the shock.”

Some sections have attributed vandalism to economic factors like unemployment, demand for aluminium and copper, sabotage and to some extent, ignorance of the impact of the outcome.

The electricity sub-sector, like many others, has registered significant milestones over the years, with the generation capacity now at 2,000MW since Karuma hydropower plant came on board.

There are more gains in an expanded distribution network spanning over 62,000 kilometres of low and medium voltage excluding transmission lines, amongst others, but consistent plucking and theft could easily rob us of this hard-earned progress and the associated benefits.

The writer is the head of Communications, Umeme Limited.