The Citizen (Dar es Salaam)
23 June 2011
editorial
Just when will the electricity crisis end? This is a question that Tanzanians should be asking themselves after Tanesco announced on Wednesday yet another round of power rationing which will see electricity being switched off for 12 hours daily.
Actually, the rationing began in mid-May, and Tanesco’s announcement hardly caught anyone by surprise.
It is worth noting that Tanesco last month announced that power would be rationed from May 19 to 26 as a result of a deficit in the national grid caused by the switching off of the Songas gas generators for routine maintenance.
However, May 26 came and went, but the rationing continued, and it was only on Wednesday that Tanesco announced a “new” load shedding schedule, this time blaming the cuts on a low water level at Tanzania’s biggest hydro power station in Iringa Region.
What is particularly worrying is the fact that a permanent solution to recurrent power shortages that date back from the early 1990s seems to be nowhere in sight. No lesser an authority has admitted this hopelessness than Tanesco itself.
A lot has been said about the power woes, but it is the chairman of Parliament’s Energy and Minerals Committee, Mr January Makamba, who was on the mark after stating that the crisis is the result of Tanzania having not invested enough in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. It is as simple as that.
It has been the norm for the government and Tanesco to take emergency measures to address power crises such as the one Tanzanians are currently enduring. These short-term solutions explain why electricity has been a rare commodity in Tanzania for two decades now.
It is laughable that we expect to develop as a nation without electricity. Our dream of having an export-driven economy and become a middle-income nation in a few decades is bound to remain just that – a dream. We are going out of our way to promote Tanzania as a desirable investment destination, but it is unlikely that these efforts will bear the desired results if we cannot assure prospective investors of reliable electricity.
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