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Tanesco
to extend grid power to Ngorongoro
By Arusha Times Correspondent
The Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) experts have objected
to distribution of power in the area using electricity poles and
overhead cables as is the practice elsewhere.
Power cables to supply electricity to Ngorongoro Conservation Area will
therefore be laid underground.
Mr. Boniface S. Njombe, Tanesco regional manager in Arusha said
implementation of the project to supply power to Ngorongoro will kick
off soon.
"Tenders have been announced and it is NCAA who will supervise the
project," he said in an interview, declining to say how much the project
would cost.
NCAA officials have objected to the use of power poles in the area
because it would impact on the ecology and disturb animals.
Mr. Njombe said electricity to NCA would be supplied to the Authority
head offices on the rim of the famous crater, tourist lodges and few
settlements.
The 8,272 square kilometre NCA was established in 1959 as a multi-use
land area for conservation, tourism and pastoralism.
Only minimum agriculture is allowed and no more immigrants are allowed
to settle permanently in an area which currently boosts of 60,000
people.
However, the power for NCAA from the national electricity grid would not
extend to Loliondo, the Ngorongoro district headquarters which is some
200 km away from the crater.
According to Mr. Njombe, Tanesco would purchase a large diesel generator
to supply power to Loliondo township.
He added that Loliondo is one of the few district headquarters without
electricity and is among those earmarked for electrification.
The official explained that Namanga border town will be supplied with
power from Kenya national power grid in the next one and a half months.
Electricity from the neighbouring country would be extended to Longido
district headquarters and some villages and training institutions close
to the two towns.
President Jakaya Kikwete announced when he visited the area early last
year that it was cheaper for Namanga and Longido to be supplied with
electricity from Kenya than from Arusha, some 120 km away.
The border town is the main border post between Tanzania and Kenya and
generates a lot of revenue for the government in form of custom duties
for imported goods and other forms of taxation to businesses springing
up there.
Until last year it was estimated that the government will spend
Sh.700million to connect Namanga and Longido with electricity from
Kenya.
The Kenyan side of Namanga township is already getting power from that
country's national grid.
Several regions and districts in Tanzania Mainland are supplied with
electricity from neighbouring countries because of high costs of
connecting to the national grid.
These include Kagera region which is getting power from Uganda, Rukwa
region supplied from Mbala town in Zambia and Tunduma which is getting
electricity also from Zambia.
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