TANESCO SAYS, THEY WILL DEAL WITH UNSCRUPULOUS WOODEN POLES SUPPLIERS

Tanzania Electricity Corporation (Tanesco) Assistant CEO of Customer Service Joyce Ngahyoma (centre) stresses a point during a three-day international stakeholders’ workshop on quality of wood poles as per TANESCO specifications held in Iringa region yesterday. To her right-hand side is a manufacturers’ representative Henk Zonnestein from South Africa. (Photo by Friday Simbaya)

The Tanzania Electricity Corporation (Tanesco) has said Tanzania is not a dumping place where people should bring in substandard wooden transmission poles, adding that it is not ready to give business enterprise to companies involved in the sale of poor electrical poles to the corporation. 

The statement has been issued yesterday by Assistant CEO of Customer Service Joyce Ngahyoma while representing the Executive Director on a three-day international stakeholders’ workshop on quality of wood poles as per TANESCO specifications. 

She said that workshop has brought together transmission poles manufacturers and tree growers both inside and outside the country to discuss the quality of the wooden poles required in the country. 

Ngahyoma said Tanzania is heading toward a medium-sized economy, and so TNAESCO need to ensure that it provides reliable power to support sustainable industrial development in the country hence the reasons for the organization to ensure that the electricity infrastructure is stable. 

She said in recent years it has emerged a habit of suppliers distributing low-quality wooden transmission poles that causes that decay and break out prematurely the act that gives the organization with the government a loss of revenues. 

“The organization with our partners rural electricity agency (REA) is spending 220 billion shillings a year for purchasing electricity poles, when these premature poles are broken down it will give the government and the nation as a whole the loss money set aside to buy them (poles) as result the company and government together losses revenues due to power failure because under quality wooden poles,” she said. 

"It is our aim for our stakeholders meeting is to have a common understanding of the types of poles and quality we need poles to last for more than 40 years, but we have recently been having a problem with the poles in question. Three years they begin to decay "she said. 

However, Ngahyoma said in order to prevent the loss of revenue to TANESCO and the government due to use of poor quality wooden poles, the company will provide every region with X-Ray Spectrometer -equipment used for measurement of retention copper chromium and arsenic in treated wood poles also determination of various elements I materials. 

For his part, the Tanesco Health and Safety Manager, Majige Mabula, said the organization has prepared to make sure they receive wooden poles with recommendations to ensure the quality and durability of poles and mitigate the effects of chemical usage in the country. 

"We are looking at the issue of tree planting, manufacturing wooden poles that are why we've called them and discuss and even suppliers, with a goal to have shared understanding on the type of poles required," said Mabula. 

The Rural Electricity Agency (REA) Engineer Jensen Mhavile has said that the development of manufacturers and suppliers of wooden poles from inside and outside is important because it will help Tanzanians get reliable electricity to send Tanzania into an industrial country. 

He said the agency has already disseminated electricity to 4395 villages out 12,268 villages in the first and second phases of REA rural electrification. 

Mhavile added that 7,697 remaining villages in the country will be supplied with power in the implementation of the Rea phase III project come 2020. (By Friday Simbaya, Iringa )