Town left in the dark for two months

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-16 09:53

Traditional Incandescent light bulbs are seen at an apartment in Munich August 31, 2009.[Agencies]

LUANDA - A power outage has knocked out the lights and services in a small Angolan town for two months, a local official said on Tuesday, despite the country's multi-billion dollar investments in new hydro-power projects. The outage was caused by a generator malfunction in the town of Quipeio, about 70 km (45 miles) south of the city of Huambo, said Frederico Saude, a local administrator, adding that authorities were still trying to fix the problem.

With numerous powerful rivers crossing the country, Angola has tremendous potential for generating electricity but the country is still struggling to rebuild several dams that were wrecked during three decades of civil war, which ended in 2002.

South Africa's power utility Eskom recently agreed to assist Angola develop its large hydroelectric power potential of up to 10,000 megawatts following a state-visit by South African President Jacob Zuma to Luanda last month.