The Tanzanian prime minister has given the go-ahead to the country's sole power generator to use extra reservoir water to continue power generation to avoid electricity rationing, especially in Dar es Salaam.

Prime Minister Edward Lowassa authorized the use of extra reservoir water on Wednesday after on-the-spot consultations with the country's ministers of water, energy and environment at the Mtera Dam in central Tanzania, according to reports reaching here on Thursday.

The prime minister allowed the Tanzania Electric Supply Company to use one additional meter of reservoir water level at Mtera from its current 688 meters above sea level to maintain power generation output.

The hydro-power plant at Mtera needs 690 meters of reservoir water level to operate optimally but due to prolonged drought since late last year, the power plant had already been allowed to use two meters of excess reservoir water below that level.

The Mtera Dam, constructed in 1981, converts into 600 sq. km of surface area with 370 million cubic meters of reservoir water at the 688-meter water level.

With a designed power generation capacity of 80 MW, the Mtera hydropower plant used to produce half of the country's hydro- generated electricity. Yet the actual generation has dropped to 30 MW due to the drought.

Steven Mabada, production manager of the Tanzania Electric Supply Company, said that the water stream from the Mtera Dam has been dwindling from an average of 139 cubic meters per second in 2001 to 41 cubic meters a second in 2005.

The company has been considering a power rationing contingency that most local industrialists consider as crippling to the country 's economy apart from devastating to the residents who are tiding over the long hot and humid summer.

The Mtera Dam and its downstream dam of Kidatu combine to generate two thirds of Tanzania's annual power consumption of 500 MW.

Source: Xinhua