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Glimmer of hope as Mtera water level rises
2006-03-07 09:13:05
By Gerald Kitabu and Pacifique Nkeshimana
There are hopes that Mtera power plant will continue operating for at least a month following heavy rains that pounded the central and southern parts of the country over the weekend.
Mbeya and Iringa regions received most the rains, raising hopes that power output from the Mtera Power Plant may soon be stepped up and shorten the number of hours that the country has to do without electricity.
News of the rains comes just three days after the plant’s manager, Engineer Nazir Kachwamba sounded a warning that the plant was on the verge of shutting down as a result of diminished water levels in the dam.
Interviewed by telephone, Kachwamba said Mtera meteorological station recorded 87mm of rain on Saturday, the highest since the country began experiencing power rationing nearly a month ago.
’’Following the heavy rainfall, the volume of water in the dam rose marginally from 687.51metres on Saturday to 687.62 metres yesterday (Sunday).
This increase will enable us to continue producing electricity for the next one and a half months in case there is no more rainfall,’’ said Kachwamba.
He added that, in order to do away with the current power rationing across the country, the level of water in the dam should be at least 695 meters above sea level.
’’We will continue running one generator only at Mtera dam and another at Kidatu dam because the level of water is still very low,’’ he said.
Mtera dam has two generators, while Kidatu dam has four.
He said, however, that the decision on how much power to produce even if the situation improves rests with Tanesco management.
According to the manager, currently the generator at Mtera power plant produces 18MW and the one at Kidatu produces 30MW.
Under ordinary circumstances, the Mtera plant should produce a total of 80MW, while Kidatu should produce 204MW when running at full capacity.
Commenting on the trend of rainfall across the country, the Director General of Tanzania Meteorological Agency, Dr Mohamed Mhita told The Guardian that Mtera dam is located in the zone that has only one rain season.
The zone includes Singida, Dodoma, Tabora, Kigoma, Rukwa, Mbeya, Ruvuma, Lindi Mtwara, Iringa and some parts of Morogoro region in which the season begins in November and lasts up to April.
’’This year, however, the current rain season began in January in some parts of the zone but despite coming late we expect the rains to continue up to mid-April,’’ he said.
Regarding the heavy downpours that Dar es Salaam and other coastal areas have experienced since Saturday, Dr Mhita said that they are not part of the long rains season.
He said that the current rains, which caused heavy flooding in many parts of Dar es Salaam over the weekend are the effects of a tropical cyclone known as diwa, which is sweeping east of Madagascar.
However, the long rainy season should start anytime this week, according to the weatherman.
He said: ’’Although it rained heavily in Dar es Salaam due to the weather activities over the Indian Ocean following the tropical cyclone in east Madagascar, these effects are not connected to the long rains season.
We expect two days of dry weather from tomorrow (today) before the long rains season starts.’’
Dr Mhita said that, generally the long rains season in almost the entire county has started since all regions are receiving regular rainfall.
He said all parts of the country except Shinyanga and Kigoma towns yesterday received many rains.
’’In all our stations, the results we recorded showed that it was raining except in Shinyanga and Kigoma towns,’’ he said, adding that yesterday Mtwara region recorded the highest rainfall in the country with 36.4mm.
He said that Dar es Salaam received 31.7mm, Kilwa received 28 mm followed by Same in Kilimanjaro region receiving 22.3mm of rainfalls.
The weather boss said that Bukoba received 16mm of rainfall, while Mwanza recorded 15mm.
’’It rained even in Zanzibar and Pemba,’’ he said. He added that Zanzibar received 0.7mm and Pemba 0.8mm of rainfall.
He said: ’’Other parts of the country that received rainfall are Singida (3.5mm), Dodoma (0.2mm), Iringa (1.3mm), and Mbeya (11.1mm).’’
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