GOOD NEWS TO TANZANIANS
Arusha. Tanzania and Uganda have signed an agreement to develop the 16-megawatt Kikagati-Murongo hydropower project on Kagera River on the boundary between the two countries, the East African Community (EAC) has said.
The project, comprising two units of 8MW each, will be connected to the Uganda power grid at Kikagati which is linked by a 33kV line from Mbarara and will include an electrification programme in Murongo, Tanzania which currently has no electricity.
"The project will be implemented by an independent power producer,” said officials of the two countries as well as the EAC during the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the EAC headquarters here on Friday.
According to a statement issued by the EAC secretariat yesterday, a Joint Technical Committee (JTC) comprising of technical officers from the two partner states and the regional organization will be responsible for steering the project implementation.
The Committee will commence the development of a Bilateral Agreement that will, among other things, look into sharing of benefits and responsibilities, modalities of power exchange of the project to the two countries and ownership of the project's assets after the expiry of the contract with the IPP.
The process, according to EAC officials, is expected to the completed before the end of this year. They hinted that project implementation could commence early 2012.
They said during the signing of the MoU that the project, whose cost was not revealed, would contribute to the EAC cross-border electrification programme where border communities benefit from electricity from a neighbouring partner state "if the grid is nearer than that of its own country".
EAC is currently developing a regional cross border electrification policy which is expected to be completed next month. The policy being developed will facilitate smooth and faster implementation of the Cross-Border Electrification Programme that includes the development of transboundary resources such as the Kigagati-Murongo project.
The MoU signing ceremony took place on the sidelines of the 23rd meeting of the EAC Council of Ministers which took place at the Arusha International Conference Centre (AICC) on September 9th this year.
The minister for East African Cooperation Mr. Samuel Sitta signed on behalf of Tanzania while Mr. Eriya Kategaya, Uganda's first deputy Prime Minister and minister for EAC Affairs endorsed the pact on behalf of his country.
The permanent secretary in Tanzania's ministr of EA Cooperation Dr. Stergomena, her Ugandan counterpart Mrs. Edith N. Mwanje as well as the EAC secretary general Dr. Richard Sezibera were present to witness the ceremony.
Realizing of the project is consistent with provisions of Article 101 of the EAC Treaty to promote the least cost development of energy resources to supply affordable energy while protecting the environment.
This is not the first time electricity from Uganda will be supplied to Tanzania. Since the 1990s, many parts of Kagera region in Tanzania have been supplied with electricity from the neighbouring country which borders the region since the 1990s.
Source: Thecitizen.
