Overloaded utility poles scare residents of Chamanculo, Maputo

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Overloaded utility poles scare residents of Chamanculo, Maputo

3:39 CAT | 16 Aug 2021

Photo: O País

Maputo’s Chamanculo neighbourhood is awash with dangerous electrical connections. Residents are scared, but Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) says that the problem is due to the disorganised streets.

Last Thursday, 22 houses were consumed by a fire allegedly caused by a short circuit. All these residences were in a plot measuring 40 by 20 metres, where previously one single house stood.

All of the burned down homes – and more besides – were fed by the same electricity distribution pole in the centre of the space. This utility pole is in turn powered by another one, which scares the residents of Chamanculo D.

André Muhave, a resident of one of the houses, told ‘O País’ that the pole had already given off sparks more than twice. “We called EDM, and they came to fix it, but it made them [sparks] again. We were all scared,” he narrated.

This fear has grown following the fire, which André Muhave and his neighbours believe was caused, in part, by the overloading of the pole. In fact, of the 22 houses, only three had a contract with EDM; the rest were supplied via neighbours, through clandestine connections. In such a situation, nobody considers the danger of overloading poles, as Muhave himself told us.

Filomena Simbine is 60 years old and sells tomatoes in front of her house. Her attention is on her product, but sometimes she has to look up to make sure the distribution pole poses no danger to her grandchildren, who always join her at the stand. “Even a car noise scares me, because I’m afraid the pole will move and make sparks,” she explains.

Filomena lives near the fire site and now, at night, she thinks that the same situation could happen in her house, as there is a pole nearby that she considers overloaded.

Circling through Chamanculo and other Maputo neighbourhoods, finding poles with lots of wires is not uncommon. Some are even inside homes, which frightens residents. There has been a utility pole in the house of 57-year-old Violeta Olívia for over ten years. Rainy days are a terror, but fear abates, because, until now, there have been no frightening sparks.

The ‘O País’ newspaper called on the Maputo City regional distribution coordinator to analyse on the ground the situation of the houses burned on Thursday and inspect other connections. He acknowledges that the connections are not as good as they might be, but blames the area’s disorderly nature.

“There aren’t the streets that would allow connections according to electrification standards,” Feliciano Dique explains. “If we had streets, we would make the safest ones [connections].” Even so, EDM says that this does not pose a danger to users, not least because the best possible procedures were followed.

Despite that, a large number of homes were reduced to ashes by a short circuit in the Malanga district, also in Maputo city, last year. In all these cases, EDM says that absence of orderly territorial planning is largely responsible.

By Alfonso Chavo

Source: O País