Africa-Press – Tanzania. Rural Energy Board (REB) has instructed Rift Valley Energy Company to speed up construction of the Luponde Power project so that members of public use it for economic activities.
In the course, seven villages in Luponde are eagerly waiting for the power to start their business activities, with many of them have already prepared themselves to venture into different businesses once electricity reaches their areas.
The directive was given here over the weekend by the REB Chairman, Advocate Julius Kalolo, during a visit by energy sector development partners to inspect the implementation of rural energy project at Luponde. “
The project is at an advanced stage of implementation, but there are a number of challenges when it comes to connecting power to customers,” he said Adding; “We agreed that you have to connect 1,400 customers and by today only 402 have been reached.” Adv Kalolo told the contractor to fast track the implementation to ensure the project covers a half or three quarter of the targeted number of customers.
He said the development partners wants to see value for money of the funds they injected in the rural energy projects.
Equally, the chairman stressed that the projects must bring impacts to enable the communities engage in socio-economic activities rather than using the power just for lights.
Moreover, he said, the rural electrification projects have improved social services such as schools, health centres, water services and communications, among others.
However, some households have failed to do wiring due to financial constraints, but the government has come with gadget known as UMETA which does not require wiring for a house to be connected.
Adv Kalolo thanked the development partners’ contribution in rural energy projects, calling for the communities to take care of the electricity infrastructures so that they could last longer.
On his part, Sweden Embassy Coordinator for energy and Environment projects, Mr Stephen Mwakifwamba, said the development partners’ goal was to support the government initiative of poverty reduction through increased supply of energy.
Mr Mwakifwamba said they have been impressed by the Luponde power project. Briefing the team, Rift Valley Energy Manager, Mr Maxwell Mugombe said the Luponde power project construction started in 2016 and was completed in June, 2019 has so far produced 1MW, which they have been selling to the national power utility- Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (TANESCO).
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