Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Sakata la Ukosefu wa Umeme Zanzibar

Picha imepigwa na Peter Bennett

Wadau, mambo ni mazito huko Zanzibar. Tangu May 21, kisiwa chote cha Zanzibar kimekosa umeme shauri ya kuharibika kwa ile bomba linalopeleka umeme kutoka TZ bara.

Imebidi watu wakumbuke enzi za mabibi na mababu zao na kununua vibatari, majiko ya mkaa/mchina, mishumaa, nk. Imebidi wakumbuke jinsi ya kuhifadhi vyakula kama nyama kwa kukausha na kuichoma. Wenye majenereta wana nafuu lakini wasio na uwezo wa kuwa na jenereta wanaumia.


Huo ukosefu wa umeme unaathiri uchumi wa Zanzibar. Biashara nyingi ziko karibu kufa hasa zilizotegemea friji na air condition! Hoteli za kitalii zinashindwa kutoa huduma nzuri, na kampuni ya umeme Zanzibar inasema inakosa kipatao cha shs. milioni 30 kwa siku. Hospitali hazina umeme, wanahitaji matibabu wanaathirika. Maji safi ni shida. Jamani!

Lakini cha kushangaza ni kwamba tangu ule bomba uunganishwe miaka 28 iliyopita, haikufanyiwa service. Kwanza ni ajabu kitu kama hicho kudumu miaka 28 bila matatizo. Lazima walioijenga walikuwa ni mafundi hasa. Tena inatembea chini ya bahari kwa km 38! Ni bahati kweli haikuharibika kabla ya May 2008.

Na kwa nini katika muda huo hakuna Zanzibar power generating station? Huo umeme kutoka bara ungekuwa wa ziada tu.

Wataalamu walitoka Norway kusaidia kuitengeneza. Na walikuwa wameagiza spea kutoka Afrika kusini. Lakini bado haijarekebishwa. Wataalamu wanasema kuwa huenda watakosa umeme mpaka mwezi wa tisa yaani Septemba!

Wadau mnaonaje hiyo tatitzo?
Kwa habari zaidi someni:
http://www.ippmedia.com/ipp/guardian/2008/06/16/116583.html
*****************************************************************

Zanzibar without power for another 4 weeks - media

Thu 5 Jun 2008,

By William Sakala

ZANZIBAR (Reuters) - A power cut that hit the Zanzibar archipelago last month will continue for at least another four weeks until an undersea cable is fixed, an engineer working on the repairs was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

The cable linking Zanzibar to mainland Tanzania broke on May 21. It was damaged by a surge at a power station in Zanzibar following a blackout. Norway built the power station, which receives electricity from mainland Tanzania.

Local media quoted Hakon Hamre, an engineer with Norwegian firm Nexans, telling the semi-autonomous islands' deputy chief minister, Ali Juma Shamhuna, that Zanzibar should expect at least a month more without electricity.

"I cannot confirm when power will be restored, but we anticipate the repair works could last ... at least four weeks as the problem is unique," Hakon Hamre, an engineer with Norwegian firm Nexans, was quoted as saying by a privately owned daily newspaper, the Citizen.

Hamre is in the country to help engineers from the state-run utilities Zanzibar Electricity Company and Tanzania Electric Supply Company to fix the cable.

The outage has hurt the economy of Zanzibar, which relies largely on tourism. Businesses have had to resort to expensive diesel-powered generators and airlines now avoid night travel.
"We can not run a 100-room facility on generators for weeks," one hotel owner north of Zanzibar told Reuters.


Zanzibar has been receiving electricity for the last 28 years through the 38 km marine cable, which is reported never to have been serviced.

The lack of power has had a big impact on water supply and hospitals, while Zanzibar Electric Company says it is losing 30 million shillings a day in revenue.

The islands get their electricity from Tanzania's Kidatu hydro power plant, using an average of 40 Megawatts at any given time for its population of about 1 million.

They are the only Indian Ocean islands that fully depend on electricity supplied from the African continent and critics say they were unprepared for this blackout.
"This has been the mistake ... We have had many signals that an alternative source was needed but the government has not taken any action," opposition Civic United Front shadow energy minister, Hamad Masoud, told a news conference

No comments:

Post a Comment