TPC LIMITED BUDGETS SH. 1.5bn FOR FLOOD CONTROL

BY GRACE MACHA IN ARUSHA

TPC Limited intends to spend Sh. 1.5 billion to control floods which often untold damage its sugar cane fields.

The floods are reported to have impacted heavily on the production of sugar at the plant located near Moshi.

"Over Sh. 1.5 billion has been set aside for the purpose", said Jaffari Ally, the firm's senior administrative official.

Water gushing from rivers originating from Mt. Kilimanjaro has often damaged the sugar cane farms and the plant structures.

The crisis is reported to have become more notorious in recent years after the Kikuletwa river changed its course.

"We have been seriously impacted. Now we have to act",he said during a recent visit to the site by Petros Katambi, a deputy minister in the Prime Minister's Office.

Production of sugar could not meet the targets due to the heavy floods on the farms as well as the factory premises.

Mr.Ally could not reveal the monetary impact of the damage caused by water but only quipped that the loss was monumental.

"We can do away with this challenge if we build some barriers to divert water from emptying into our farms or factory premises, " he said.

TPC Limited is the oldest sugar processing plant in the country, having been in operation since the 1940s

In the 1970s,  it was joined by three plants in Morogoro region (Kilombero I and Kilombero II and Mtibwa and Kagera Sugar Factory in Kagera region; all owned by the state.

Statistics show that the production of the sweetener there increased from 36,000 tonnes in 2000 to 110,000 tonnes last year.

Productivity of the sugar cane had also gone up to 140 tonnes per hectare during the period.

Mr. Katambi who is the deputy minister responsible for Youth, Employment and Labour lauded the move by the plant to stop the floods.

"This is also an opportunity to provide employment to the jobless youth", he said, noting that unemployment was a challenge in the society.

Diversion of the flood water is to be carried out through a newly designed irrigation scheme.

TPC Limited occupies about 16,00 hectares of land at Arusha Chini of which 8,000 hectares are used for sugar cane cultivation.