Trade union Solidarity, in conjunction with KragDag and Maroela Media, has launched an emergency plan to assist households in the event of a total power blackout, owing to the ongoing problems at State-owned electricity provider Eskom.

The plan offered practical tips on how households could prepare for the eventuality of being without electricity generated by Eskom for up to two weeks.

“Although [the] chances [of] a collapse of the national grid are slim, we believe members of the public should be prepared for it to some degree,” the union said.

It highlighted that Cabinet, the Cape Metropolitan Council and several other provincial and metropolitan authorities had reportedly started to make such preparations.

Moreover, independent energy experts had already referred to the possibility of protracted power outages.

“Should such an eventuality occur, the public will, to a large extent, have to rely on themselves and should thus be prepared. Even if it doesn’t happen, it is still in the public’s interest to be proactive.

“With this emergency plan, we want to help our members and the general public be prepared [so that there is no reason] to panic should Eskom not be able to supply electricity for a week or two,” Solidarity Research Institute head Piet le Roux said.

The emergency plan, which was available on the union’s website, included tips that ranged from water and food security to arrangements on how family members would stay in touch with one another should communication be impeded.

The plan also dealt with safety measures, as well as possible cooperation between neighbours and other members of the community.

It was divided into measures that could be taken beforehand and those that could be taken during an outage.