It is interesting to compare Tz President to Orca.. allAfrica.com Tanzania: Kikwete Hopeful for Action On Climate Change, Optimistic On Africa's Future 18 December 2009
Tanzanian President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete recently sat down for an hour-long interview with AllAfrica's Reed Kramer and Tami Hultman at State House in Dar es Salaam. In the wide-ranging conversation, he addressed issues of health, education, corruption, food security, regional integration, civil society and economic growth. Here are President Kikwete's observations, beginning with climate change.
"What are you doing along with other African leaders, to make a difference on climate change?"
"First, let me express my deepest appreciation that there is now a greater awareness of the whole issue of climate change than there was in the past..."
"...You mention the importance of rural infrastructure. Infrastructure in general is key to all the things you just mentioned. So how are you addressing infrastructure challenges, such as power shortages?"
"We're doing a lot. Infrastructure is the second largest [item in the] budget. The first is education. The second is infrastructure. The third is health care. The fourth is agriculture.
We have allocated a lot of money for roads. We've created a road fund, and we've given a lot of money to the rural areas to improve the rural roads, to make them passable, to open up new areas.
With regard to electricity, during my time we've increased 100 megawatts; 145 megawatts have already been increased. "We're now planning to increase 160 megawatts by the end of next year. We had a huge program for 300 megawatts production in Mtwara using natural gas, working with private companies. But with the economic slowdown and the financial crunch, they've postponed their investment in this project. So we're looking for some other funds.
We have problems right now. In our power generation, we don't have power surplus to take up the load in the event of a problem developing. So we had problems with one of the machines here. We lost 20 megawatts with the Songas. And we have problems with a hydro-power station in Kihansi, where we lost 60 megawatts. This 80 megawatts created a big problem for us here.
Now what we're working on is building capacity.
We have not been able to cope with the demand for electricity; I think the demand is increasing by 17 percent."
"That shows you are growing."
"Yes, that is crazy - 17 percent. What we've actually done here is to suppress the demand. The challenge is how to cope. We have a coal mine for generating power. Right now, we are getting only six megawatts. We want to increase that to 200 megawatts, if we can find the financing for that. We are going to get 200 megawatts from coal. We are now working, through our own budget, 160 megawatts - 100 for Dar es Salaam and 60 for Mwanza. Then we are working on the 300 megawatt station. We are still looking for other partners.
In terms of a vision for what needs to be done in the power sector, we have that. Our constraint has been getting the resources together. But I think now, with private-public partnership, we should be able to do that.
We've done that successfully with gas, and now we're encouraging that with hydro-power generation."
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