Published by the government of Zimbabwe
New Ziana
29 August 2005
Harare — The Ministry of Energy and Power Development has said that it would soon embark on a programme to conserve electricity and fuel in light of energy shortages due to foreign currency constraints.
Presenting evidence to a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mining, Environment and Tourism, the permanent secretary in the Energy and Power Development Ministry, Mr Justin Mupamhanga said the ministry was carrying out an audit to implement the programme.
"We hired a consultant to carry out the exercise and is expected to present the result by mid September," he said, adding that following this exercise, the ministry would conduct a workshop to identify key players, including members of parliament and come up with a programme of action.
"We have also engaged a consultant to address the conservation in the fuel sector and will soon develop fuel conservation campaigns including tips on how to save fuel," he said.
He said the ministry would work on a programme to raise awareness on conservation of resources, especially in the rural areas, where there was rampant cutting down of trees.
Other projects the ministry was working on included the coal bed methane gas project, in cooperation with other ministries such as Mines and Mining Development and Industry and International Trade.
The development of the project, he said, had in the past been hampered by shortage of funding. The use of solar water heating would also be promoted to conserve electricity, Mr Mupamhanga said, adding that there was need for the ministry to develop incentives to encourage the public to use solar heating more to release energy to industry.
Other projects include the ethanol blending project as well as the bio diesel production project.
Commenting on the current fuel situation, Mr Mupamhanga said the country was living on minimal supplies, saying that a recent assessment revealed that the country required 3,5 million litres of diesel per day and three million of petrol and 800 000 of Jet A1. The ideal requirements per month, he said, was 105 million litres for diesel, 90 million litres petrol and 24 million litres of Jet A1.
He said the country required a total of US$211 million per month to purchase fuel against the current US$30 million.
The country has been facing a shortage of fuel in the past few years as a result of shortage of foreign currency shortages, further worsened by the rise in international oil prices.
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