News / National
Government bans use of electric geysers
25 Sep 2015 at 07:35hrs | Views
Government will soon ban use of electric geysers as it battles to reduce electricity consumption following crippling power outages that have hit the country.
The programme will be rolled out next week.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, Partson Mbiriri, yesterday said electric geysers consumed 40 percent of domestic power and that Government was working on ways to replace them with solar-powered geysers.
A statutory instrument would soon be gazetted to make it a crime to use an electric geyser and that an announcement to that effect would be made next week.
"There will be a launch of this programme (banning of electric geysers) next week and details will be availed then. But certainly a decision has been taken because electric geysers use 40 percent of power in any household," said Mbiriri.
"And of course we leave those electric geysers on even when we don't need to use hot water.
"They are on 24 /7. A decision has been made; rather than continue to waste electricity, let's substitute electric geysers with solar geysers. There will be an announcement sometime next week, most probably on Wednesday when the Minister of Energy is going to launch the programme."
He said a statutory instrument was still being crafted to make possession of electric geysers illegal.
"Once it has been legislated for, yes it will be illegal. What will happen is there will be recognition of the amount of time that is needed to roll out this programme. Whereas on paper it may seem illegal, it will be a question of how much time we give to the country to implement the programme. At a certain cut-off date, it will be illegal," Mbiriri said.
The programme will be rolled out next week.
The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Energy and Power Development, Partson Mbiriri, yesterday said electric geysers consumed 40 percent of domestic power and that Government was working on ways to replace them with solar-powered geysers.
A statutory instrument would soon be gazetted to make it a crime to use an electric geyser and that an announcement to that effect would be made next week.
"There will be a launch of this programme (banning of electric geysers) next week and details will be availed then. But certainly a decision has been taken because electric geysers use 40 percent of power in any household," said Mbiriri.
"And of course we leave those electric geysers on even when we don't need to use hot water.
"They are on 24 /7. A decision has been made; rather than continue to waste electricity, let's substitute electric geysers with solar geysers. There will be an announcement sometime next week, most probably on Wednesday when the Minister of Energy is going to launch the programme."
He said a statutory instrument was still being crafted to make possession of electric geysers illegal.
"Once it has been legislated for, yes it will be illegal. What will happen is there will be recognition of the amount of time that is needed to roll out this programme. Whereas on paper it may seem illegal, it will be a question of how much time we give to the country to implement the programme. At a certain cut-off date, it will be illegal," Mbiriri said.
Source - Chronicle
