In Mali, living to the rhythm of power cuts

No fan to cool off, no battery for mobile phones... stifling evenings follow one another, and solutions have to be improvised.

"I bought a lot of fans. I share them with some children and with our cleaners," explains Mamadou Haïdara, a private executive, gently waving his new acquisition.

To shorten the ordeal in the pretty house in the Baco Djicoroni district, the Haïdara go to bed early, but the children struggle to sleep.

The cuts last at least two hours in this central district, and sometimes all night. The Haïdara family is among the 50% of Malians who have access to electricity, out of a population of 21,9 million, according to World Bank figures.

Infrastructure is struggling to keep up with population growth, which is growing by about 3% per year, according to the World Bank, in one of the poorest countries in the world and in which a large part of the territory is in the grip of to jihadism and insecurity.

Fed up

Both at home and at work, the hours seem long when the temperature exceeds 40 degrees during the hot season.

"We spend the whole day together doing nothing, just chatting. It's a discouraging situation. We are therefore forced to sit idly by" for lack of electricity, laments Ibrahim Konaté, head welder in a metal workshop in Bamako. .

"It's painful for a worker who leaves home and finds a load shedding at work. It's as if we come and return empty-handed," he annoys.

These cuts weigh on the economy. "In this period of high heat, people need fresh products. When the products are not fresh, customers refuse to buy them. We are the ones who suffer the consequences", underlines Issa Dicko, manager of a food store.

"People don't have the same temperaments. Some customers get angry," laments Oumar Yattare, cashier in a restaurant in the capital.

In the regions of Ségou, Sikasso, or Mopti, the inhabitants of several localities have demonstrated in recent months. In Gao, in the north, the load shedding lasted several days in a row.

Villages in rural areas often depend on generators or local companies, but in cities the national company crystallizes the blame.

The Energy Company of Mali (EDM), nicknamed "Energie du Mal" by some users, is unable to meet the demand for electricity which is growing by 10% per year on average according to the Ministry of Energy.

The fault, in particular, of antediluvian thermal power stations that consume fossil fuels.

Untapped potential

A report from the Ministry of Energy in 2019 points to "a very high production cost due to thermal production, which currently leads to a deficit of nearly 50 CFA francs (0,75 euros) on the average selling price of kWh".

Selling its electricity at a loss, the company has accumulated a colossal debt. On March 28, the West African Development Bank (BOAD) announced the implementation of a clearance program, amounting to 45 billion CFA francs (about 68 million euros).

This is to "ensure the continuity of the supply of electricity to the Malian populations and to support the economic and social development of the country", according to BOAD.

Ultimately, the authorities hope to take advantage of Mali's energy potential, whose hydroelectric and photovoltaic resources are largely untapped.

Users like Mamadou Haïdara take their troubles patiently: "We advertise, we are shown convoys of generators, we are told that such and such a plant is being finished... We are still waiting".