Concern as southern regions’ gas use still low
Mbeya. The Southern Highland Zone has the lowest rate of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) consumption despite the areas being only second to the Lake Zone in terms of population size.
Low LPG usage suggests that the area has one of the highest levels of usage of such environmentally unfriendly domestic energy sources as firewood, charcoal and kerosene.
Figures by the Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (Ewura) show that the zone, made up of Iringa, Njombe, Mbeya, Songwe, Rukwa and Katavi regions accounts for only eight per cent of all the LPG imported into Tanzania.
The Coastal Zone, which comprises of Dar es Salaam and Coast regions, accounts for the highest percentage at 50 per cent while the Northern Zone (Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Manyara) comes second with a 23 percent as the entire Lake Zone accounts for 12 percent.
“What this means that the Southern Highland Zone is one of those places cutting of trees for firewood is still high. This is bad for environmental conservation efforts,” Ewura official Titus Kaguo said.
He was speaking during the opening of a training on usage of LPG to traders and distributors of the products from the entire Southern Highland Zone here yesterday.
Tanzania’s LPG importation rose by 33 percent during the 2018 calendar year to 142,940 metric tonnes from 107,263 metric tonnes in 2017.
Ewura attributes the increase mainly to government’s public awareness efforts on the benefits of using LPG and the low cost of LPG compared to traditional fuels such as charcoal among others.
He said the distributors were now being required to apply for licences from Ewura. “What we are currently doing is creating public awareness so as to raise the number of people who make use of LPG.”
