Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete has assured his country that the current power crisis will come to an end not in the coming month but rather next year, according to reports reaching here on Wednesday.

The president said in Arusha of northern Tanzania on Tuesday that the electricity supply problem might fully come to an end next year and not in November as most people had anticipated.

He promised the public that all measures will have been put into place in the coming few months before the power crisis can be stopped altogether after the Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited (Tanesco)'s new power plants start operation.

"We apologize to all Tanzanians for the inconvenience that has affected our people during this time of power crisis," said the president who explained that it had taken his government five months to finalize all procedures of importing emergency generators from foreign countries.

But he assured the public that the installation of the emergency generators were expected to be complete by next month.

The Tanzanian government and Tanesco, the country's sole electricity supplier, have been striving to purchase or lease natural gas-fired turbine-driven generators in that the country's power grid now lacks in total 240 megawatts or about half of the country's normal electricity consumption.

The deficiency was caused by a lack of reservoir water at the country's hydropower dams.

Source: Xinhua