PUB3701 PORTFOLIO SOLUTION 2023 DUE 08-05-23

The problem that my community is facing is continuous load shedding. Load-shedding negatively affects many sectors throughout South Africa and contributes significantly to the rapidly declining economy. Eskom’s power outages cripple the community’s most vulnerable members, educational institutes, agricultural sectors, domestic and international tourism industry, small business enterprises, health care providers, and many other essential services. Body Load-shedding profoundly affects the day-to-day life of South Africans and can damage or destroy household electrical devices and appliances. Surges occurring once power is restored can fry sensitive electronic devices. Devices carrying reactive loads are at the most significant risk of damage.Battery-powered devices are indirectly affected by load-shedding. Each time a battery is charged and discharged, it’s called a cycle. Depending on the battery chemistry type, a battery can last anywhere from a few hundred (lead acid) to a few thousand cycles. A home battery backup solution can be a lifesaver during load-shedding, but constant cycling will reduce its chronological lifespan. In 2022, it was reported that long periods of load shedding were resulting in many increased incidents of crime. This included metal thieves using periods of when there is no power to steal equipment from power stations, sub-stations, and transmission lines thereby complicating Eskom's efforts to mitigate the energy crisis and costing the utility over R16.8 billion (US$937 million) whilst also causing additional difficulties for municipalities. Incidents of metal theft, house breaking and robberies due to a lack of security lighting and alarms had increased in some urban areas of South Africa during the period when level 6 load shedding was implemented. Near-constant load-shedding has led to increased crizheyzme rates, making personal safety even more of an issue in my community with one of the highest murder rates in the country. During the week, home burglary incidents have increased by 3.2% and 8% over the weekend. From a financial standpoint, South African households spend an average of R5,000 a month to mitigate the effects of load-shedding. Eskom’s power outages present a massive challenge for healthcare workers and hospitals in my community. Public hospitals need electricity to provide sufficient health care services to patients. Healthcare providers often have generators to combat these outages. However, due to increased operating costs, employing fossil fuel generators is not a sustainable long-term option. Typically, backup power is only supplied to priority wards and services. Frequent blackouts destroy medical equipment. Healthcare centers must upgrade equipment with uninterrupted power supplies to prevent damage caused by power outages. Medicines that require storage at controlled temperatures are affected or spoiled by outages. Healthcare providers can’t maintain accurate temperatures to ensure that perishable medications and precious fluids like blood and plasma remain viable and safe to administer. Load-shedding creates an additional backlog of surgical procedures. Thousands of patients have to wait for extended periods to undergo surgery. This issue has resulted in the Ministry of Health meeting with Eskom to try and ensure patient safety due to load-shedding.Making matters even worse, healthcare workers are at risk of criminal acts during power outages due to having to start work early in the morning or finish late in the evening. The continuous disruption of power has a massive impact on learning and teaching. Some schools in my community aren’t designed to allow natural sunlight into the learning environment. In addition to this, most schools don’t have access to alternative energy generation or backup. Schools that rely on technology to instruct students fall behind on the recommended learning material, resulting in poor grades. At-home students struggle to follow online classes and meet deadlines making learning difficult. Issues with traffic due to load-shedding also cause students (and educators) to arrive late to school, causing additional learning disruptions. Due to the increased number of power outages, small businesses (SMMEs) in my community often need help meeting customer deadlines, resulting in poor customer satisfaction and retention. Not only do SMMEs face the challenge of not being able to generate an income, but they also have to deal with the following issues: Staff Morale – Load-shedding dramatically d