[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
DAM-L article on tanzania power cuts/LS (fwd)
----- Forwarded message from Lori Pottinger -----
From owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net Tue Dec 5 15:04:23 2000
X-UIDL: ca543da8c783c679c9ad0c6a1a0d8b9a
Return-Path: <owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net>
Received: from DaVinci.NetVista.net (mjdomo@mail.netvista.net [206.170.46.10])
by lox.sandelman.ottawa.on.ca (8.8.7/8.8.8) with ESMTP id PAA03545
for <dianne@sandelman.ottawa.on.ca>; Tue, 5 Dec 2000 15:04:16 -0500 (EST)
Received: [(from mjdomo@localhost)
by DaVinci.NetVista.net (8.10.0/8.8.8) id eB5JZ6Z12052
for irn-safrica-list; Tue, 5 Dec 2000 11:35:06 -0800 (PST)
(envelope-from owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net)]
Received: [from [192.168.1.215] ([205.178.127.217])
by DaVinci.NetVista.net (8.10.0/8.8.8) with SMTP id eB5JYv711985
for <irn-safrica@netvista.net>; Tue, 5 Dec 2000 11:34:57 -0800 (PST)
(envelope-from lori@irn.org)]
X-Sender: lori@pop3.netvista.net
Message-Id: <v02140b19b652f508716b@[192.168.1.215]>
Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2000 11:40:13 -0800
To: irn-safrica@netvista.net
From: lori@irn.org (Lori Pottinger)
Subject: article on tanzania power cuts/LS
X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by DaVinci.NetVista.net id eB5JYv711986
Sender: owner-irn-safrica@netvista.net
Precedence: bulk
[Charset iso-8859-1 unsupported, filtering to ASCII...]
Tanzanians anticipate lay-offs following power rationing announcement
BBC Monitoring Service - United Kingdom; Nov 23, 2000
Text of report by Tanzanian newspaper 'The Guardian' web site on 23rd November
Power rationing might jeopardize Tanzania's economic growth, resulting in
massive retrenchment and urgent remedial measures should be taken.
Some Dar es Salaam residents told 'The Guardian' in an interview yesterday,
that no single industrialist was ready to retain manpower which was
performing below capacity.
Hassan Manju, a businessman who owns a factory, said that he would be
forced to lay-off some of his workers because there would be little for
them to do. He said that no advance notice was given by the power firm and
he had been caught unawares.
"But it makes no difference really because we have been experiencing
intermittent power cuts for almost the whole of this month. What Tanesco
[Tanzania Electricity Supply Company] has done is to make the power cuts
official," he said. Manju owns a paint factory at Kipawa [untraced].
Another Dar es Salaam resident, Bakari Mwenda, said that the government
should be prepared to get less revenue from industries, especially those
depending on electricity. The industries will produce less and definitely
they would not charge them the same amount for fewer goods they will be
producing.
"But I think someone is lying.The power rationing is attributed to low
water level at Mtera Dam, but I know that Iringa and Mbeya regions
[southwestern Tanzania] have been receiving rains since Thursday last week
[16th November]," he said.
He noted that with power rationing, the generator business and stand-by
lights would be hiked, wondering indeed if there was no high ranking
official in Tanesco who had a hand in the business.
Mikidadi Mrindoko, who owns a bar at Ukonga, said that his business would
be badly affected because revellers would not want to take their drinks in
the dark. He wondered that with four hydroelectric power plants there could
still be rationing.
"Tanesco should be privatized as soon as possible because there seems to be
a managerial weakness in the company.They have all the resources, yet they
have failed to provide the service," he said.
Last Tuesday [21st November], the permanent secretary in the Ministry of
Energy and Minerals, Patrick Rutabanzibwa, announced that countrywide power
rationing would start tomorrow.
Rutabanzibwa said that the move would ensure that water at Mtera reservoir,
which has more than 70 per cent production, is not completely depleted
before being replenished by next rainy season expected in January, next year.
Asked why Tanesco could not use power from the privately-owned IPTL
[Independent Power Tanzania Limited] plant, Rutabanzibwa said that still
there was misunderstanding [between] the government and the firm which was
still pending in the court.
Tanzania has six hydroelectric production plants which are Mtera, Nyumba ya
Mungu, Kihansi, Kidatu, Pangani and Hale.
Source: 'The Guardian' web site, Dar es Salaam, in English 23 Nov 00
/BBC Monitoring/ _ BBC.
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Lori Pottinger, Director, Southern Africa Program,
and Editor, World Rivers Review
International Rivers Network
1847 Berkeley Way, Berkeley, California 94703, USA
Tel. (510) 848 1155 Fax (510) 848 1008
http://www.irn.org
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, send a message to majordomo@netvista.net
with no subject and the following text in the body of the message
"unsubscribe irn-safrica".
----- End of forwarded message from Lori Pottinger -----