Here’s South Africa’s Xmas wish list, Eskom

We don’t ask a lot for Christmas, there’s just one thing we need. All we want for Christmas… is for Eskom to consistently provide the country with the power that we pay so dearly for and stay out of the news for the wrong reasons.

Even though the country has enjoyed a rare reprieve from load shedding this week, Eskom always still manages to find a way to make the wrong headlines.

This time, a short Bloomberg article titled “Eskom pollution more than China’s”, carried in yesterday’s Business section in The Citizen.

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It says Eskom’s soot pollution is at a 31-year-high, a whopping 42 times worse than China, the world’s biggest producer of coal power.

The two worst performing plants were Kendal and Matla, both in Mpumalanga. They must be kidding, right?

No, the Bloomberg report says: “Eskom last week said in the six months through September particulate matter emissions deteriorated to 0.92kg per megawatt hour sent out, the highest since 1992, according to the utility.

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That compares with an average of 0.022kg for Chinese power plants, according to government figures.” And what has caused the pollution, according to Eskom?

The deterioration of a range of pollution abatement equipment at the plants, including electrostatic precipitators – which emits an electric charge to get the dust to stick to a plate rather than being emitted into the atmosphere – and fabric filter bags, the collectors of the soot.

Eskom insist they are refurbishing these precipitators, but in the meantime we are lumped with health issues like respiratory problems.

Thanks, Eskom, we might just have to stay indoors this Christmas. Clean air and lights would be asking for too much.