Dams alone will not do
Jun 19, 2006
SIR — Investing in large dams on the River Nile is good but diversifying our electricity sources is far better. Imagine if 10 years from today, Lake Victoria’s condition worsened!
SIR — Investing in large dams on the River Nile is good but diversifying our electricity sources is far better. Imagine if 10 years from today, Lake Victoria’s condition worsened!
Faced with a ‘ghost’ like Lake Chad, what would we do? It hurts and is absurd to see a government becoming helpless in the face of a major crisis threatening her 20-year celebrated achievements. In modern planning, weather is a major factor to consider.
The government has decided that since the people are troubled by the power crisis, rather than fixing the problem, increasing the already high tariffs would be a solution! Perhaps it is this insensitive planning that explains why out of a total of $1.3bn proposed investment in the energy sector, close to $1,050m will go to the River Nile dam-related projects.
But surprisingly, less than
$5m is proposed for renewable sources of energy such as solar and biogas. It seems energy is limited only to hydropower.
An independent central planning authority specifically to fix the power problem must be put in place to deal with issues of where, when and how to manage energy problems.
Dickens Kamugisha
Africa Institute
for Energy Governance
Faced with a ‘ghost’ like Lake Chad, what would we do? It hurts and is absurd to see a government becoming helpless in the face of a major crisis threatening her 20-year celebrated achievements. In modern planning, weather is a major factor to consider.
The government has decided that since the people are troubled by the power crisis, rather than fixing the problem, increasing the already high tariffs would be a solution! Perhaps it is this insensitive planning that explains why out of a total of $1.3bn proposed investment in the energy sector, close to $1,050m will go to the River Nile dam-related projects.
But surprisingly, less than
$5m is proposed for renewable sources of energy such as solar and biogas. It seems energy is limited only to hydropower.
An independent central planning authority specifically to fix the power problem must be put in place to deal with issues of where, when and how to manage energy problems.
Dickens Kamugisha
Africa Institute
for Energy Governance