The government through the Minister of Energy has gazetted Statutory Instrument 235 which bans the installation and connection of electrical geysers in new houses.
In brief, what the law says is simple:
- Those who already have electrical geysers can keep using them
- Those who don’t have electrical geysers can no longer buy them and connect them to the grid
- If you must have a geyser get a solar geyser
It’s not a secret that Zimbabwe is facing an electricity deficit and a number of measures have been put in place by the government in order to pare down demand in addition to load-shedding, for example, the government has introduced the stepped tariff.
Given how expensive electricity becomes if you are a heavy user it is astounding that there were people who are still even using electrical geysers let alone those buying one.
Even if you can afford one, solar geysers are extremely cheap to purchase and install. In fact, gone are the days when solar was for the fringe. These geysers are practically in every shop in most towns and these shops, if they don’t offer installation, usually have the WhatsApp details of a recommended installer at hand.
So this is a very sensible law indeed, its only fault is that it doesn’t ban electrical geysers in all homes, but that is understandable as it would be harsh on those who already have electrical geysers.
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