The Guardian on Sunday reminded Tanzania's leaders, especially politicians that, cheap politicking fuelled mainly by egoism and the quest for cheap popularity won’t solve the current power crisis:
For the past two weeks Tanzanians have been facing another power rationing, reminding us of the worse situation in 2006 when the country nearly faced total blackout. State-owned company announced a countrywide power rationing exactly six months after the Tanesco MD had sounded the alarm bells on the looming crisis in March, during the debate on whether the nation should acquire Dowans plants or not.
Angered by the tough stance taken by the Parliamentary Committee on Energy and Minerals, the outgoing Tanesco Managing Director Dr Idriss Rashidi, said Tanzania has two choices- acquire an emergency power generating plant or face a total blackout in the next 180 days.
On Thursday, Kigoma North MP Zitto Kabwe held a press conference whereby apart from urging the government to confiscate controversial Dowans plants, he also defended the earlier move by Tanesco to buy the emergency power generating plants. We all know who is who in the Dowans deal and would like to state clearly that, as a nation, let us not be dragged again into the debate that was ended seven months ago.
With dilapidated infrastructure built mainly during the 1970s, the company’s power supply capacity is estimated at 595 megawatts. This year, the actual demand is 787 megawatts - creating a deficit of 192 megawatts.
Read the full article here.
