- In Miti, eastern Congo, Reverend Sisters have manually deployed a hydroelectric power facility.
- Residents of the Republic of Congo suffer epileptic power supply.
The electricity supply in Africa is direr, and individuals have resorted to manually generating electric power. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sister Alphonsine Ciza learned the tools of the electrical engineering trade so she could work on better access to electricity in Miti.
Sister Ciza lives in the town of Miti, located in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unfortunately, due to poor last-mile coverage, the power supply in her locale is scarce and unpredictable. In tackling this challenge, she spends much of her day in gumboots with a team of nuns and engineers, greasing machinery and checking the dials of a generator that powers her town. Her efforts, along with the introduction of much-needed technology, have been of great relief to the inhabitants of Miti, Reuters reports.
The mini-plant lights up a convent, church, two schools and a clinic free of charge.
“This is the alternator that produces the current, and here we have the cabinet that sends the current to the population. It’s here that we make adjustments; it’s called the electrical cabinet,” said Ciza. It took Ciza’s convent three years to gather the required $297,000 (€284,897) and build the plant, which generates between 0.05 and 0.1 MW.