Congo is a dark country for the most part. In most cities, electricity is only available for a few hours a day. In the village, electricity is non-existent.
Now, the capital city of Kinshasa is experiencing long blackouts, too.
via af.reuters.com
Democratic Republic of Congo's main hydro-power plant is running at half capacity due to low water levels, triggering long blackouts in Kinshasa and causing havoc for the city's businesses.
Problems with the Inga I and II dams come as Congo struggles with broken equipment at the decades-old plant, which could lead to continued outages even after water levels come back up, officials said.
The issue is a potential worry for President Joseph Kabila in an election year.
"Production is limited to around 350 MW (megawatts) following this natural calamity which has struck the Congo River," Inga's director, Mbuyi Tshimpanga, told Reuters, adding that Inga should be producing around 800 MW from its four working generators.
Businesses in Kinshasa have complained that the outages have forced them to run diesel generators at high cost, and a civil society leader said he was organising a demonstration to protest the blackouts this weekend.
The start of the rainy season in September will improve the situation, but capacity remains constrained by equipment problems at the plant and transmission capacity to the city that could take years to fix, according to Daniel Yengo Masampu, the director of the country's electricity supplier, SNEL.