The Tanesco headquarters in Dar es Salaam being demolished yesterday to pave the way for the construction of Ubungo flyovers. PHOTO | SALIM SHAO
Dar es Salaam. There is growing frustration among electricity consumers as most parts of the country went without power supply for the better part of the last few days even as Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) struggled to stabilise the situation. The disruptions have affected most businesses in cities and towns that are connected to the national grid. Regions affected include Dar es Salaam, Dodoma, Morogoro, Tanga, Iringa, Mbeya, Arusha, Mwanza and Kilimanjaro.
Some traders have reported heavy losses due to the unstable electricity supply which Tanesco has blamed on technical problems. The disruptions have intensified following announcement that Tanesco will be moving away from its base in Ubungo. The former headquarters of the state utility is to be demolished to pave the way for the erection of the Ubungo flyovers whose construction has started.
The Tanesco management has, however, refuted the reports linking the current load shedding on the plan to move out of Ubungo and assured customers that everything was being done by its technical teams to ensure normalcy is restored.
A source in the company who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter also refuted reports that the unstable power supply was because the agency was shifting its national grid control system from Ubungo to an unspecified station in the city.
Earlier, The Citizen was informed by government official that the national grid control centre also needed to be relocated alongside the headquarters, accounting for the ongoing power problems.
But our source at Tanesco said: “That is totally wrong, because the national grid control is not fixed in Dar es Salaam, rather the control was in power production regions.”
Tanesco reiterated yesterday in a statement released by its public relations office that its technical team was working hard to address the situation.
“They are working day and night to fix the problem which disrupted power to regions connected to the national grid,” read part of the statement.
“Power has started resuming in some regions including Iringa, Dodoma and Tanga,” read the statement. Our reporters in the said regions indeed confirmed that power supply had been restored yesterday.
Dar es Salaam
Power outage paralysed social and economic activities with some service providers threatening to suspend operations should a quick solution not be found.
A survey established hospitals were among areas adversely affected due to frequent and unreliable supply of electricity.
Our reporters in Dar es Salaam, Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Morogoro, Tanga, Iringa, Mbeya and Mwanza have reported frequent outages ranging from 12 hours to 18 hours in some areas. A patient who was attending treatment at Muhimbili Orthopaedics Institute (MOI) said work was disrupted in the morning.
“When a standby generator was started services slowed down,” he told The Citizen. Ms Asha Kidugo, a beverage retailer in Buguruni said her cold drinks business has seen a steady loss of customers since the problem started. “My earnings have dropped to an average of Sh12,500 from Sh25,000 everyday which is huge loss to me,” lamented Ms Kidugo who is also a widow.
A butcher in Kibaha, Coast Region, Mr Athanas Labia said they were considering to suspend business for a while to avoid moer loses.
“We have since lost 80 kilogrammes of meat that rot due to lack of power,” he said, noting that they can’t withstand another such loss.
