Arusha polytechnic to light up dark-rural communities

The move comes at the time when more than 70 percent of Tanzania’s population is not connected with the national grid.

It is estimated that about 24 percent of Tanzanian population is connected with electricity services of which 7 percent is in rural areas. Demand for electricity has grown to an average of 30 percent per annum.

The Arusha-based polytechnic is aware of the challenge and for the past five years, the institution has been carrying out a number of studies on how to make mini-hydropower plants so that people who are close to small waterfalls get access to reliable power.

The college managed to explore mini-waterfalls available in some parts of the country and make them benefit rural communities.

Some villages on the slopes on Mount Meru like Makumira village have benefited from the college endeavors whereby a number of villagers are supplied with hydro-electricity of between ten and 15 kilowatts from different waterfalls available in the area.

Dr Richard Masika who is the college rector once said: “We have embarked on yielding between 50 and 100 kilowatts of power from various hydro-electric sources available in Arusha including a number of waterfalls found in both Arumeru and Arusha-Rural Districts.”

He said that through its special energy project, his college has been producing electricity of between ten and 15 Kilowatts for local consumption in Makumira suburb, on the outskirts of Arusha city.

The power being tapped from nearby waterfalls is being supplied among 20 households in the Makumira Village of Arumeru District whose thousands of residents now enjoy uninterrupted power supply.

Also benefitting from the hydro-power electricity production by ATC, is the Engare-Nanyuki Secondary School of Arumeru District, Arusha Region which is also being supplied with such services free of charge. The next beneficiary will be the local Catholic Mission of Kigarawa in Njombe District, Southern Highlands.

Recently, with the support from the Norwegian government, ATC saw Kikuletwa Hydropwer Station which suspended production of electricity in early 1980’s as an area suitable for the establishment of a hydropower training centre and for electricity generation training centre.

The Arusha-based College then requested the government to grant it ownership of the station. The government agreed to the college request and directed the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) - the then owner to hand over the property and all rights to ATC in April 2013.

The power station, located in Hai District, Kilimanjaro Region has been operated by Tanesco before suspending its operation.

The Kikuletwa Hydropower Station will be developed to generate electricity from 2 MW at Kikuletwa Source I and to cascade up to 17 MW in Kikuletwa River Waterfalls in the areas of Kikuletwa II, III, and IV.

The college is also set to establish a training centre for hydropower production and distribution, and hydropower infrastructure and equipment maintenance as well as establishment of a centre for research and testing of mini hydro turbines.

According to Masika, in the process of implementing these objectives, environmental preservation shall be given priority.

Norway is one of the important partners in the revival of the Kikuletwa hydro power station which has been dormant in the last 30 years.

The Scandinavian nation already granted 29 million Norwegian kronors (about $ 5m) for project preparation following an agreement signed by the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Dar es Salaam and the ministry of Finance and Economic Affairs.

Permanent Secretary Ministry of Education, Science, Technology, and Vocational Training, Maimuna Tarishi commends ATC’s endeavours, urging other colleges to emulate the spirit.

Speaking recently at the stakeholders’ meeting for the development of Kikuletwa power station as a hydropower training centre and for electricity generation, Tarishi challenged other technical colleges to produce more experts in small and medium hydropower production, distribution, and infrastructure and equipment maintenance for the country to meet power demand.

“Tanzania has a shortage of experts in hydropower production, distribution, and infrastructure and equipment maintenance because there is no institution that provides such training in the country,” Tarishi said.

She added: “There is also a problem of availability of experts in the production of electricity from mini water sources.”
Eng Dr Masika also said:

“I want you to try to imagine what it is like to live without electricity. No television, no computer, no Internet, no mobile phone, at night you won’t have light, no technologies will be accessible in health clinics or schools and many more.

This means that you are not only isolated from the rest of the world but you are desperately poor too.”

“Our College motto is ‘skills make the difference’ and our philosophy is to educate students who will make the difference.

As such, when it comes to access to electricity, we are educating students who will light the dark-rural and not students who will run away from the dark-rural.

“This is one of the motivations behind acquisition of Kikuletwa Hydropower Station for the purposes of transforming and developing it into Hydropower Training Centre and Electricity Generation Plant,” Eng Masika said.

The idea behind the project is to improve electricity supply in Tanzania so as to enhance living standards for Tanzania and the region through reliable and environmentally sustainable power supply.

Prof Christian Nyahumwa is the acting chairperson of the ATC governing board who described energy as the main catalyst for national developments and that developed countries has much higher energy supply than least developed ones.

“For this reason, Tanzania is striving to improve energy supply across all parts of the Country in order to accelerate sustainable development,” he said.

Currently, the national energy supply is more reliant on hydropower, thermal (natural gas and petroleum) as well as biomass which is largely applied for domestic needs.

Most parts of the rural Tanzania are off grid but have high potential of energy supply through use of renewable energy sources such as hydro and solar.

Unfortunately, development of small and medium hydropower plants is being constrained by a number of obstacles.
These include: low level of expertise and skills, low level of technology knowledge and access to capital. It is rewarding to note that the later obstacle, namely access to capital is being addressed by the government through funds managed by the Rural Energy Agency (REA).