Editorial
Analysis
Water level at Mtera spells
trouble
Tanzania depends on hydro-power as a source of electricity for various uses. One
of the sources is the power plant at Mtera Dam. Shocking news has it that the
water level at Mtera is said to be critical despite the heavy down pours that
has persisted for the past several months.
The seasonal rains that are coming to an end by the end of next month seem to
have done little to raise the water level at Mtera Dam.
According to experts from the ministry concerned, the water level has not
reached 691.86 metres and was not expected to improve before the rains
terminate. The dead level for the water reservoir, the biggest in the country,
is 690 metres.
Last December, experts said the water level fell as low as 689.5 metres to
suspend TANESCO to generate hydro-power there. The dam’s maximum level is 698.5
metres.
It was expected that this season, the water level was to improve but that has
not been the case. The biggest worry is that if during the ongoing rains, the
level is critical, what about the months after the rains have stopped?
It is imminent that after the end of the rain season, the water level will go
down to an extent that the turbines won’t be able to generate electricity. This
calls for an urgent action by TANESCO, the ministry concerned and other
stakeholders.
There is no time to wait or to waste; immediate action is required. An
alternative source of power should be sought as the closure of Mtera dam is
obvious.
The critical water level at Mtera spells trouble in the energy sector. We hope
that the government will take action to rectify this.
Rescuing environmentalism
“THE environmental movement’s foundational concepts, its method for framing
legislative proposals, and its very institutions are outmoded. Today
environmentalism is just another special interest.” Those damning words come not
from any industry lobby or right-wing think-tank. They are drawn from “The Death
of Environmentalism”, an influential essay published recently by two greens with
impeccable credentials. They claim that environmental groups are politically
adrift and dreadfully out of touch.
They are right. In America, greens have suffered a string of defeats on
high-profile issues. They are losing the battle to prevent oil drilling in
Alaska’s wild lands, and have failed to spark the public’s imagination over
global warming. Even the stridently ungreen George Bush has failed to galvanise
the environmental movement.
If environmental groups continue to reject pragmatic solutions and instead drift
toward Utopian (or dystopian) visions of the future, they will lose the battle
of ideas. And that would be a pity, for the world would benefit from having a
thoughtful green movement. It would also be ironic, because far-reaching
advances are already under way in the management of the world’s natural
resources—changes that add up to a different kind of green revolution. This
could yet save the greens (as well as doing the planet a world of good).
“Mandate, regulate, litigate.” That has been the green mantra. And it explains
the world’s top-down, command-and-control approach to environmental
policymaking. Slowly, this is changing. Yesterday’s failed hopes, today’s heavy
costs and tomorrow’s demanding ambitions have been driving public policy quietly
towards market-based approaches.
These, however, are obvious targets. What is really intriguing are efforts to
value previously ignored “ecological services”, both basic ones such as water
filtration and flood prevention, and luxuries such as preserving wildlife. At
the same time, advances in environmental science are making those valuation
studies more accurate. Market mechanisms can then be employed to achieve these
goals at the lowest cost.
If this new green revolution is to succeed, however, prices must be set
correctly. The best way to do this is through liquid markets, as in the case of
emissions trading. Here, politics merely sets the goal. How that goal is
achieved is up to the traders.
Another goal is the embrace of cost-benefit analysis. At this, greens roll their
eyes, complaining that it reduces nature to dollars and cents. In one sense,
they are right. Some things in nature are irreplaceable—literally priceless.
Even so, it is essential to consider trade-offs when analysing almost all green
problems. The marginal cost of removing the last 5% of a given pollutant is
often far higher than removing the first 5% or even 50%: for public policy to
ignore such facts would be inexcusable.
Whether the big environmental groups join or not, the next green revolution is
already under way. Rachel Carson, the crusading journalist who inspired greens
in the 1950s and 60s, is joining hands with Adam Smith, the hero of
free-marketeers. The world may yet leapfrog from the dark ages of clumsy,
costly, command-and-control regulations to an enlightened age of informed,
innovative, incentive-based greenery.
Analysis
Mwanza
speed boats: Who is telling the truth?
The two fast ferries that were
imported from Japan by M/S Lake Fast Ferries Limited and the Ministry of Works
have created a situation which has left most Tanzanians at crossroads. The major
issue is how to transport the fast ferries to Mwanza by road. But the importers
and the Ministry are at loggerheads as to how, as Timothy Kitundu
explains.
M/S Lake Fast Ferries Limited are claiming that they have met the requirements
of hauling the boats by road while the Ministry of Works under Minister, John
Magufuli claim that the importers have been cheating since the boats were
imported into the country last year.
If, as Magufuli claims, the weight of the boats, if loaded on a low loader, is
over 70 tonnes are allowed they will cause immense destruction to our roads as
the allowed weight for Tanzanian roads is only 56 tonnes.
The importers on their side claim that they have made modifications to the fast
boats by reducing the weight by approximately 10 tonnes, and that the height
which initially was 7 metres was reduced by a total of 4.8 metres.
Who is telling the truth?
Many are convinced that Minister Magufuli may be right as he is trying to
protect the roads which have been draining the government’s hard earned money
because of construction and reconstruction.
The boat owners may have issued their statements to capture the market of
passenger transportation in the Lake Victoria Zone. However, they say that they
want to make travelling on Lake Victoria safer by giving people an option not to
use hazardous marine vessels, as was the case with the capsized Mv. Bukoba.
Magufuli has got hold of information that tells a different story from what the
importers want to reveal. According to the Minister, the size, weight and
materials used for manufacturing, contradicts the information the importers
have.
According to Magufuli, the owners claimed that the material used was fibreglass
which also contradicts the manufacturers’ information that the boats were made
of Aluminium alloy which can be dismantled and re-assembled.
Following the Ministry’s directives to modify the boats prior to their
transportation, a report released by African Marine and General Engineering
Company Limited based in Mombasa indicates that the boats’ cradles were modified
and chokes introduced instead.
Furthermore, the firm confirmed that the boats measured 8 metres from keel to
mast (confirming Magufuli’s claim) but they managed to reduce the height by a
total of 4.8 metres making the height of the boats between 5.2 and 5.4 metres
(assuming some irregularities).
From the facts learnt from both parties, it is clear that M/S Lake Fast Ferries
Limited did lie on the measurements and weights of the boats, according to facts
from manufacturers. But it is still unclear if the Ministry is telling the
truth.
If the boats after modification have lost a total of 10 tonnes each, I am sure
the weight of the boats has gone down to the accepted 56 tonnes for Tanzanian’s
roads, however, it is not known if the boat owners took into consideration of
the boats’ width.
The boat owners should accept the Ministry’s directive and further modify the
boats so that their width complies with the regulations.
Let Tanzanians hear from experts on the issue as the dialogue so far has been
exclusively between the boat owners and Minister Magufuli. Experts should also
put in black and white whether dismantling the boats can lead to their
equilibrium destabilisation or not.
Managing
unrest
CHINA’S leaders are at last showing some disapproval of the anti-Japanese
protesters who have staged large, sometimes violent, demonstrations in a
dozen cities over the past three weekends. But the biggest outpouring of
xenophobic unrest in China for more than six years looks likely to rumble
on. If so, further damage will be done not only to China’s relations with
Japan, but also to its efforts to convince its neighbours that its economic
rise poses no threat to their security.
A visit to China this week by Japan’s foreign minister, Nobutaka Machimura,
failed to produce any obvious agreement on how to end the unrest. China
refused Japan’s request for an apology for damage to Japanese property
during the protests, even though Chinese police have done little to stop
protesters from throwing stones and other projectiles at Japan’s diplomatic
missions. A meeting between China’s president, Hu Jintao, and Junichiro
Koizumi, Japan’s prime minister, could take place at an Asia-Africa summit
in Indonesia last week. But as Mr Hu flew to Jakarta, there was no official
word that such a meeting had been planned.
Japan’s foreign ministry issued a statement concerning the demonstrations
and has information on relations with China. China’s Ministry of Foreign
Affairs describes Sino-Japanese relations. Japan is seeking a seat on the UN
Security Council.
For the first time, however, China has indicated that it wants the
demonstrations to stop. On April 19th the foreign minister, Li Zhaoxing,
called on citizens to “express their feelings in a lawful and orderly way”
and not to take part in “unapproved demonstrations or activities that may
affect social stability.” By China’s standards, these were mild warnings.
There was neither mention of what might happen to violators, nor any threat
of action against participants in the unauthorised protests that have
already taken place. Other Chinese officials meanwhile continued to blame
Japan for the unrest.
China’s leaders are probably uneasy, nonetheless, about the impact the
protests are having on their country’s image, as well as about the risk that
the crowds could turn on the government if their protests are harshly
suppressed. The failure of protests to materialise in Beijing last weekend,
despite calls for them circulated on the internet, will have been a comfort.
This followed a warning from the capital city’s police that unauthorised
protests would be treated as illegal.
But a similar warning in Shanghai failed to deter tens of thousands of
people from taking to the city’s streets on April 16th, chanting “Japanese
pigs get out” and “Kill the Japanese” as they marched on the Japanese
consulate and pelted it with stones. The next day, thousands protested in
several other cities, including Shenyang in the north-east, Shenzhen on the
border with Hong Kong and Hong Kong itself. Nationalists have called for
more protests during the coming week-long May Day holiday, especially on May
4th, the anniversary of anti-Japan protests in 1919.
If this agitation has worried China’s leaders, they have shown no
inclination to address its cause by instructing the government-controlled
media to present Japan’s position more objectively. The protests have been
inspired mainly by Japan’s bid for permanent membership of the UN Security
Council, and the Japanese Education Ministry’s approval of school textbooks
that play down Japan’s atrocities in China in the 1930s and 1940s. Chinese
media have failed to highlight that only a handful of schools would use the
most egregious textbook and that Japan has apologised numerous times for its
wartime behaviour. Mr Koizumi’s ill-judged visits to the Yasukuni Shrine in
Tokyo, where some war criminals are among those honoured, have been
highlighted. But there has been little mention of the tens of billions of
dollars in aid Japan has given to China in the past two decades.
The protests could have a significant impact on tourism between Japan and
China during the May Day holiday, which coincides with Japan’s Golden Week.
For Japanese and Chinese, this is a popular time for travel. Thousands of
Japanese have cancelled plans to visit China. Bookings by Chinese for trips
to Japan (where the protests in China have prompted threats to Chinese
diplomatic missions, but otherwise elicited a calm response) are also
unusually few for the coming holiday.
Japanese businesspeople, whose factories in China employ some 1m Chinese,
worry about calls by Chinese activists for a boycott of Japanese goods.
There has been no indication so far of any major boycott. But at the
weekend, hundreds of Chinese workers at factories run by Taiyo Yuden, a
Japanese electronic parts company, went on strike in the city of Dongguan,
near Shenzhen. Though related to the anti-Japanese protests, the strike was
also triggered by complaints over pay. Given that much Japanese
manufacturing in China is geared towards markets outside China, such
disruption arouses far greater concerns than a possible decline in Chinese
demand. Tokyo’s Nikkei index fell nearly 4% on April 18th to a four-month
low. Although this reflected other economic factors, the protests in China
played a part.
This week a Chinese deputy foreign minister, Wu Dawei, said his country’s
ties with Japan were at their worst since the rivals established diplomatic
relations in 1972. Another Chinese official said that what China considers
Japan’s meddling in the Taiwan issue was also aggravating tensions, and
could be “very dangerous”.
The Asia-Africa summit in Indonesia is intended to display friendship among
Asian and African countries which took part in the Bandung Conference in
Indonesia 50 years ago, leading to the non-aligned movement. But between the
biggest powers attending, little love will be lost.
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