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Jinja Hydropower in Jeopardy
Frank Mitchell
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What I heard is that the hydroelectric dam at Jinja was crumbling from below and had to be taken offline, and the water levels of Lake Victoria are way down (coming up slightly lately though), so power output from hydroelectric had been cut before cutoff. Tanesco had not been building new power plants in anticipation of any of this. Therefore, big power scaledowns were ordered nationwide supposedly with Dar sharing in the cutoffs. Of course all the banks and hospitals and hotels have their own generators, even most of the Indian-run shops. Generators are many in TZ. Of course it's very inefficient. On the bright side (if I may put it that way), gas has been discovered in TZ and there is a new power plant in Mtwara that is turning out power such that my student in Iringa says they have plenty of power 24/7. Why is that? Well, one hears that the new plant is not fully integrated on the national grid and therefore the output can't go yet to help the national grid shortage. Also it is said that the Chinese want to help build gas power plants in TZ, and maybe secure some of the gas for themselves. And there are newspaper stories and hearsay that power will be restored this month sometime, Feb. 7th, and June. One doesn't really know, but the government is working on it recognizing it's a terrible drain on the economy and economic development. |