Congo nun overcomes blackouts with homemade hydroelectric plant

Congolese nun and electrical engineer Alfonsine Ciza attends to the general circuit breaker at her micro hydropower plant that provides electricity to a convent, schools and a health centre in Miti near Bukavu South Kivu in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo April 12, 2022. REUTERS/Djaffar Sabiti

MITI, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Sister Alphonsine Ciza spends most of her day in gum boots, white veil tucked under a builder's hat, manning the micro hydroelectric plant she built to overcome daily electricity cuts in her town of Miti in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.

She works around the clock with a team of nuns and engineers, greasing machinery and checking the dials of a generator that is fed from a nearby reservoir and lights up a convent, church, two schools and a clinic free of charge.