Malawi Minister for Energy Aggrey Masi said that his country was facing serious power supply, revealing it could generate a mere 140MW, hardly sufficient to meet local needs. “The situation is bad … we need an immediate solution … and we hope that Tanzania could help us address the situation,” noted the minister.

Mr Masi affirmed that the country’s waterfalls were the only source of power production, but even that had been severely curtailed with adverse climate change effects.

According to Mr Masi, Malawi government had now decided to seek alternative power sources, including natural gas, although even that was a scarce resource internally, making joint efforts with neighbouring Tanzania its best next course of action. An investor in natural gas had since been identified, the minister says, with plans to install power plants at Kalonga along the common border with Tanzania.

On his side, Dr Kalemani said the matter would be discussed ‘with keen interest’ after Tanzania’s own experts ‘satisfy themselves’ over feasibility of such investment. He insisted that before getting into such discussions, the experts should take account of the country’s own natural gas resources currently available; energy policy requirements, and how the resources could be transported to Kalonga.

Dr Kalemani therefore advised the Malawian delegation to put their plan into written documents as well as officially writing the request and present it through Tanzanian government procedures, for further discussions between the two governments.

Coming to Songwe issue, the two parties agreed that the valley’s operating commission whose members are from both countries should give information which will direct how the power could be jointly produced.

It was further noted that the projects to be run in the valley are energy power-dam construction with 180 MW, to be equally distributed; irrigation farming to 6,200 hectares, water supply to citizens as well as infrastructure development, mostly roads, schools, and health centers.

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