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TANESCO needs public cooperation to curb vandalism
2006-07-20 09:04:06
By Sharbano Abubakar
While the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO) faces power crisis triggered by a three-year drought and low water inflows into the hydro power generation dams, vandalism by unknown people on TANESCO’s electrical infrastructure is reported to be on the increase.
Vandals tend to concentrate on transformer oil, distribution line conductors, transmission tower (pylon) members, and energy meters at customer premises.
Apart from the power outages, which occur from generation deficiencies and unplanned system faults, vandalism of transformer oil is another leading phenomenon resulting into regular blackouts.
Theft of transformer oil is said to have begun in 1998 in Shinyanga region, where unknown people drained transformer coolants, which they mixed with pesticides to spray cotton plantations.
The problem grew and extended to Dar es Salaam, Morogoro, Coast, Kilimanjaro and recently in Mwanza region.
In a recent incident in Mwanza, 56 transformers installed in the township were vandalized, causing TANESCO to suffer a loss of more than 140 million.
The company was forced to buy new transformers to replace those burnt down.
Once oil is drained from a transformer, it overheats, and if power is not switched off on time, the transformer explodes and cannot be repaired for future use.
According to TANESCO reports, a total of 16 transformers were vandalized and completely burnt down in Dodoma region between 2004 and May this year, thus causing a loss of 27 million/-.
The problem is apparently more acute in Dar es Salaam city. From year 2003 todate, hundreds of transformers have been vandalized in Ilala, Temeke and Kinondoni Districts.
For instance, between January and May, this year, a total of 104 transformers had their oil drained and rendered useless, which has caused the Company a loose of 520 million/-.
Last year, a total of 170 transformers in Dar es Salaam were vandalized and the loss to TANESCO was 686 million/-.
The above mentioned losses only include replacement of transformers, but does not include the loss of revenue incurred by the Company for the inability to sell electricity units to consumers.
The loss does not also include many hours lost in tackling the theft.
TANESCO technicians and even engineers are associated with this type of vandalism because they are the ones who know power facilities considered highly dangerous by ordinary people.
When responding to these allegations, TANESCO’s Public Relations officer Daniel Mshana, says people apprehended and charged before courts of law are not TANESCO employees.
”There are presently more than 30 cases in different courts, awaiting judgement of theft of transformer oil, but none of the culprits is a TANESCO staff”, Mshana says.
He says that several people have died or suffered serious body injuries inflicted upon when tampering with live transformers and power lines, and none of the deceased persons have been identified as TANESCO employees.
For instance, two non-TANESCO employees were electrocuted recently in Lushoto and Dodoma regions.
Mshana says that electrical knowledge is no longer a monopoly of TANESCO as many technical training institutes were training young people on this field.
Many of them, he says, roam around without proper employment. These are the ones involved in such theft and are also easy targets for being ”vishokas” as they deal with all sorts of illegal electricity connections.
There are numerous cases reported in Dar es Salaam region of theft of HT, LV and concentric cables which are all made of copper.
There is suspicion that the stolen cables are sold as copper scaps, Mshana says, cautioning members of the public to be alert on theft of neutral screen concentric cables, which have been installed on their premises.
”They should demand identity cards from any person who identify himself to be a TANESCO employee” He says.
All in all, while TANESCO has extensively used the media to sensitize the public on this problem, this is not TANESCO’s problem alone.
It is the whole community’s problem as everybody is affected when there are power outages occurring due to vandalism.
Those who think such vandalism is problem of Tanzania alone, they are wrong.
The same problem faces Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Malawi and all the members of SADC region. It is also rampant in countries like India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Hong Kong.
There are reports that 40 per cent of the power supplied to India’s capital of New Delhi disappears through ”transmission losses” meaning it is consumed without being paid for. It is stolen.
There is need for the village and local government leaders to work closely with TANESCO so as to mobilize the people to curb such theft.
The Police Force must also wage a war against any suspects of vandalism. Indeed, vandals should be treated as economic saboteurs and charged in the courts of law under the” economic sabotage act”.
Harsh punishment to culprits will serve as a lesson to others.
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