|
Miners should show corporate responsibility
2007-07-04 09:00:53
By Editor
With last Friday`s signing in Dar es Salaam of a pact under which Barrick Gold Tanzania will inject $28 million into a project to see electric poles erected all the way to Tarime District, the nation`s rural electrification programme has received a vital boost.
The firm is expected to collaborate with the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) in implementing a project set to integrate the border district into the national power grid.
This is good news indeed and no wonder Energy and Minerals minister Nazir Karamagi is so elated that he said that, by supplying power at a competitive tariff to North Mara Gold Mine and other economic activities in the area, the project would improve Tanesco’s financial health and the national economy appreciably.
We have noted with great interest the minister`s declaration that the government is grateful that the project would soon be implemented because the initiative ties in with the government`s target of raising access to power supply from the current 10 to 25 per cent of the country`s population by 2010.
It is noteworthy that, although the national rural electrification programme was first mooted over a decade ago, the pace of its implementation has been agonisingly slow.
As a natural consequence, we have witnessed little positive digression from the status quo – with an overwhelming majority of those enjoying the many benefits that reliable and affordable electricity offers living in cities, other urban centres and a handful of lucky rural and suburban areas.
We appreciate the fact there is a long and cruel history to this horrendously lopsided nature of such an important aspect of our national development.
Partly thanks to that history, many residents of our rural areas continue to sweat so profusely in an effort to support initiatives seeking to mould a progressively better Tanzania while getting little in terms of improved infrastructure and social services.
There is no denying that any current efforts to resolve the age-old imbalance would be long overdue in that they would be coming at a time when many people in the areas `overlooked` have long lost hope of catching the government`s eye and sincerely believe that they are maliciously budgeted out of consideration.
But it is always better late than never. There is thus still time for the government and corporate Tanzania to make up for lost time by going Barrick Gold`s way.
The giant is widely believed to have the biggest presence in the country`s mining sector.
Its contribution to Tarime’s electrification plans is a gesture that should jerk more players in Tanzania`s economy into coming up with similarly constructive action, at least as part of their corporate social responsibility.
They will emerge all the happier, having built permanent bridges of mutual trust with their neighbourhoods.
For the government, goodwill gestures like Barrick Gold Tanzania`s $28m assistance are interventions worth supporting and out of which to make maximum capital for the good of the country. It`s some food for thought.
We hope Barrick will extend the gesture to their other mining zones in Tanzania.
|
