Southern Africa: Conference to Explore Affordable Lighting
Friday, July 21, 2006
Excerpt: In a quest to give access to affordable lighting to millions of households in Southern Africa, an electronics company will host a conference to explore the feasibility of building a factory to manufacture Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFLs) in the region.
This because the majority of citizens in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region do not have access to electricity while those who use it “still struggle to afford quality lighting”.
Instead, many stilly rely on paraffin and candles which often lead to fires.
The two-day United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) conference starts tomorrow in Pretoria and will be attended by representatives from the South African government, City Power, Eskom and 11 SADC countries.
According to manufacturers of CFLs, the bulbs use 75 percent less electricity than traditional bulbs and produce the same amount of required light.
