Even though we can't take stock of the outcomes for the next 2 years but this Guardian article brings some welcome news. Not sure when last I was on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway but I have heard the horror stories of people killed by out-of-control lorries, or robbed because of a flat tire caused by a pothole (crater, in this case). According to the Speaker of the House of Rep, "the cost of the recurring congestion on the road is getting unbearable for the federal government". Really? Never mind the hundreds who've lost their lives on this expressway. "Over the years, public outcry about the appalling condition of the road has not yielded any positive result." Well now that we've established that our government is only human and looking out for its (leaders') best interests, we wait with baited breath to see if this development leaves up to its promise.
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Expanding the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway
THE Federal Government's decision to expand the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway and turn it into a 10-lane freeway is a welcome development. This particular road is no more than a death trap and a source of anguish to travellers. It is estimated that about 30 deaths are recorded on the road daily, due to accidents, most of which are avoidable. Something surely needs to be done to curb the carnage, and to protect lives.
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Dimeji Bankole made the disclosure about the road expansion plan during a recent courtesy call on the Alake of Egbaland, Oba Adedotun Gbadebo. According to him, "the cost of the recurring congestion on the road is getting unbearable for the federal government". He added that the private sector will be involved in the reconstruction which is estimated to cost about $67 billion.
All the necessary details seem to have been worked out. The project is expected to be completed within two years. Apart from the engineering reconstruction of the road, including the introduction of underground tunnels, facilities will be provided along the entire stretch of the expressway. Traffic will be directed away from crowded religious centres in order to reduce congestion. Hotels and recreational facilities will also be provided at strategic spots on the highway for travellers.
The Lagos-Ibadan expressway was completed in 1978 but since then it has not undergone any major maintenance work despite the fact that it is one of the busiest roads in the nation. The road has been neglected and left to disintegrate. It is not surprising, therefore, that the Lagos-Ibadan expressway has become notorious in many respects. With massive vehicular traffic, daily, traffic congestion is perennial and disheartening. Commuters waste long hours in crippling traffic. Robbers, rapists, pick-pockets often capitalise on the chaos to attack innocent persons.
Lack of management has given rise to uncontrolled development on the highway. For instance, the many religious worship centres that occupy vast sections of the highway compound the traffic situation especially when there are major events that attract large crowds of worshippers.
Over the years, public outcry about the appalling condition of the road has not yielded any positive result. The federal authorities that ought to manage the highway occasionally send contractors who put up some appearance for a few weeks without making any difference. The Lagos-Ibadan expressway should be rescued from its present state of neglect. There is no doubt that its reconstruction is worthwhile economically. The road links Lagos to other parts of the country.
Whatever contracts that may have been awarded in the past to effect repairs on the badly damaged portions of the road have been carried out haphazardly. Indeed, the money meant for the last rehabilitation exercise was allegedly diverted by politicians to finance the ill-fated Third Term agenda of the former administration. It is instructive that the reconstruction will now be carried out by the private sector under a BOT arrangement. This will reduce pressure on the Federal Government, apart from giving the private entrepreneurs a sense of partnership. For now, however, not much is known by the public about the details of the partnership between the Federal Government and the construction company that has been granted a concession on the Lagos-Ibadan expressway. There is need for transparency and accountability. Quality should be the overriding consideration. Public information and input where necessary should be accommodated.
The Nigeria Society of Engineers may be involved in the project to help monitor progress and standards. The contractor that would handle the road should be given clear specifications on what is to be done. The company should be closely monitored at various stages of the work. Most road contracts in Nigeria fail to meet international standards because the contractors are not closely monitored or made to adhere to specifications.
Since the proposed reconstruction is a major engineering work, there should be an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) of the project. People and institutions that have structures that may be affected by the expansion are advised to cooperate with government. Undue litigation that may stall or delay the work should be avoided. Property owners should be aware that highways have a right of way that should be respected. Whatever disputes that may arise nonetheless should be resolved amicably with a greater emphasis on the public interest.
Road users should cooperate while the reconstruction work is going on. Bearing in mind the busy nature of the road, the work should be done expeditiously in order not to disrupt movement unduly or expose commuters to excessive hardship.
Showing posts with label infrastructure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label infrastructure. Show all posts
Friday, January 25, 2008
Friday, January 18, 2008
The Afro Beat Shout Out
Please check out William Kamkwamba's Malawi Windmill blog when you get a chance. 
Pretty amazing stuff he's doing to solve his village's (and eventually, his country's) electricity problems one day (one windmill) at a time. And he's only 20!! It came out of his frustration with the electricity problems in his village (na condition wey make crayfish bend, abi?) and from reading a book one day, he got this idea to try it out. Since then he's been sponsored by a tonne of social entrepreneurs from all over (probably mainly international...but i won't get started on that). The point is, this is another great example of young Africans challenging the way things are done now and making that change they want to see, one day at a time. I'm inspired people! Now, i'm off to build my own solar panels on my roof (er, spanner anyone?)
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Thanks to The Afropolitan Network blog for posting his story and for inspiring us to get "Made IN Africa" (you heard it THERE first!).
Pretty amazing stuff he's doing to solve his village's (and eventually, his country's) electricity problems one day (one windmill) at a time. And he's only 20!! It came out of his frustration with the electricity problems in his village (na condition wey make crayfish bend, abi?) and from reading a book one day, he got this idea to try it out. Since then he's been sponsored by a tonne of social entrepreneurs from all over (probably mainly international...but i won't get started on that). The point is, this is another great example of young Africans challenging the way things are done now and making that change they want to see, one day at a time. I'm inspired people! Now, i'm off to build my own solar panels on my roof (er, spanner anyone?)-----------
Thanks to The Afropolitan Network blog for posting his story and for inspiring us to get "Made IN Africa" (you heard it THERE first!).
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Power Crisis
This article from the New York Times explains one of the reasons why Nigeria like so many other sub-Saharan African nations are performing poorly economically. Even though this article doesn't focus solely on Nigeria, the issue raised: power-blackouts, are reminiscent of the various problems experienced by Nigeria and Nigerians. Power blackouts are hardly a new phenomena in sub-Saharan Africa, where some homes can be without electricity months on end. The lack of such basic infrastructure has devastating consequences for Nigeria and the region as a whole.
The gravity of this year’s shortage is all the more apparent considering how little electricity sub-Saharan Africa has to begin with. Excluding South Africa, whose economy and power consumption dwarf other nations’, the region’s remaining 700 million citizens have access to roughly as much electricity as do the 38 million citizens of Poland.
Much goes to industry: a single aluminum smelter near Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, gobbles four times as much power as the entire rest of Mozambique. On average, the World Bank says, fewer than one in four sub-Saharan Africans are hooked to national electricity grids. Moreover, some grids are so poorly maintained that electricity suppliers get paid for as little as 60 percent of the power they generate. The rest is either stolen or lost in ill-maintained networks. For decades, the region had enough generating capacity — and few enough customers — to tolerate such waste. No more: sub-Saharan nations are adding about a thousand megawatts of generating capacity each year, World Bank experts say, but need up to twice that to keep pace with demand.
Some governments privatized chunks of their power industry in the early 1990s when free-market solutions to public-sector problems were in vogue, leaving it unclear who is ultimately responsible for providing power. Other governments, as in South Africa, failed to build power plants that experts warned were needed. The government monopoly Eskom, the world’s fourth-largest power utility, was advised in a 1998 report that it would run short of power in 2007, but planning and financing problems — not all within the utility’s control — stalled upgrades. The forecast was actually ptimistic: Eskom began running short in 2006.
Yet South Africa’s woes pale beside those of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Only 19 of 79 power plants work, the government said in April. Daily electricity output has plunged 60 percent from its peak, and blackouts cost the economy $1 billion a year, the Council for Renewable Energy in Nigeria says.
Poor management is but one problem. War has devastated the power grid in Congo, in Africa’s heart, and stalled plans to develop its vast hydroelectric potential. In Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and parts of West Africa, drought has shrunk rivers and slashed the generating capacity of hydroelectric dams. Drought in Ghana, for example, has crippled gold and aluminum production and set off blackouts in Togo and Benin, which buy power from Ghana.
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Toiling in the Dark: Africa's Power Crisis - Michael Wines
LUSAKA, Zambia — It is not that Jacob Mwale minds irrigating the 11 acres of land he farms just east of Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. It is irrigating his 11 acres in the dead of night that angers him. Two or three times a week, the Mwale farm abruptly loses power, like the homes and businesses of some of Zambia’s 300,000 other electricity users. When the power returns, sometimes late in the evening, Mr. Mwale’s farmhands work overtime, watering the fields by moonlight. “If they shut down the whole day, I have to work nights, and pay extra,” Mr. Mwale, 39, grumbled. “It’s killing us.”
Power blackouts — “load shedding,” in utility jargon — are hardly novel in sub-Saharan Africa, where many electricity grids remain chewing-gum-and-baling-wire affairs. Even so, this year is different. Perhaps 25 of the 44 sub-Saharan nations face crippling electricity shortages, a power crisis that some experts call unprecedented.
The causes are manifold: strong economic growth in some places, economic collapse in others, war, poor planning, population booms, high oil prices and drought have combined to leave both industry and residents short of power when many need it most.
The implications go beyond candlelight suppers and extra blankets on beds. The lack of reliable power has already begun to hamper the region’s development, clipping more than 2 percent off the annual growth rates of the worst-hit African economies, according to the World Bank. Some nations, like Ghana, have tried to deal with their power crises by leasing huge teams of gas generators, producing emergency power at exorbitant rates until power plants can be built.
In Nigeria, Angola and some other nations, virtually all businesses and many residents run private generators to supplement faltering public service, saddling economies with added costs and worsening pollution.
Toiling in the Dark: Africa's Power Crisis - Michael Wines
LUSAKA, Zambia — It is not that Jacob Mwale minds irrigating the 11 acres of land he farms just east of Lusaka, Zambia’s capital. It is irrigating his 11 acres in the dead of night that angers him. Two or three times a week, the Mwale farm abruptly loses power, like the homes and businesses of some of Zambia’s 300,000 other electricity users. When the power returns, sometimes late in the evening, Mr. Mwale’s farmhands work overtime, watering the fields by moonlight. “If they shut down the whole day, I have to work nights, and pay extra,” Mr. Mwale, 39, grumbled. “It’s killing us.”
Power blackouts — “load shedding,” in utility jargon — are hardly novel in sub-Saharan Africa, where many electricity grids remain chewing-gum-and-baling-wire affairs. Even so, this year is different. Perhaps 25 of the 44 sub-Saharan nations face crippling electricity shortages, a power crisis that some experts call unprecedented.
The causes are manifold: strong economic growth in some places, economic collapse in others, war, poor planning, population booms, high oil prices and drought have combined to leave both industry and residents short of power when many need it most.
The implications go beyond candlelight suppers and extra blankets on beds. The lack of reliable power has already begun to hamper the region’s development, clipping more than 2 percent off the annual growth rates of the worst-hit African economies, according to the World Bank. Some nations, like Ghana, have tried to deal with their power crises by leasing huge teams of gas generators, producing emergency power at exorbitant rates until power plants can be built.
In Nigeria, Angola and some other nations, virtually all businesses and many residents run private generators to supplement faltering public service, saddling economies with added costs and worsening pollution.
The gravity of this year’s shortage is all the more apparent considering how little electricity sub-Saharan Africa has to begin with. Excluding South Africa, whose economy and power consumption dwarf other nations’, the region’s remaining 700 million citizens have access to roughly as much electricity as do the 38 million citizens of Poland.
Much goes to industry: a single aluminum smelter near Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, gobbles four times as much power as the entire rest of Mozambique. On average, the World Bank says, fewer than one in four sub-Saharan Africans are hooked to national electricity grids. Moreover, some grids are so poorly maintained that electricity suppliers get paid for as little as 60 percent of the power they generate. The rest is either stolen or lost in ill-maintained networks. For decades, the region had enough generating capacity — and few enough customers — to tolerate such waste. No more: sub-Saharan nations are adding about a thousand megawatts of generating capacity each year, World Bank experts say, but need up to twice that to keep pace with demand.
Some governments privatized chunks of their power industry in the early 1990s when free-market solutions to public-sector problems were in vogue, leaving it unclear who is ultimately responsible for providing power. Other governments, as in South Africa, failed to build power plants that experts warned were needed. The government monopoly Eskom, the world’s fourth-largest power utility, was advised in a 1998 report that it would run short of power in 2007, but planning and financing problems — not all within the utility’s control — stalled upgrades. The forecast was actually ptimistic: Eskom began running short in 2006.
Yet South Africa’s woes pale beside those of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation. Only 19 of 79 power plants work, the government said in April. Daily electricity output has plunged 60 percent from its peak, and blackouts cost the economy $1 billion a year, the Council for Renewable Energy in Nigeria says.
Poor management is but one problem. War has devastated the power grid in Congo, in Africa’s heart, and stalled plans to develop its vast hydroelectric potential. In Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and parts of West Africa, drought has shrunk rivers and slashed the generating capacity of hydroelectric dams. Drought in Ghana, for example, has crippled gold and aluminum production and set off blackouts in Togo and Benin, which buy power from Ghana.
Zambia, where power to customers like Mr. Mwale is rationed almost every day, is a template for such problems. Barely 20 percent of households are wired for power — only 3 percent in rural areas — but the Zambia Electricity Supply Company, known as Zesco, is signing up 10,000 new customers a year, said Christopher Nthala, the utility’s transmission director. Now Zambia is getting a push: a global commodities boom has jolted its moribund metals industry to life. Investors are building two smelters, and doubling the capacity of another, to handle the boom in copper, nickel and other metals, taxing the nation’s power supply.
None of that mollifies customers, who say blackouts are so common that service in much of Lusaka has become totally unreliable.“Every day — it’s either in the morning, when people are going to work or preparing to cook, or in the evening, the prime time when I’m tired and I need to go home and listen to the news and cook my supper,” said Bishop Peter Ndhlovu...Nighttime prayer meetings in his corrugated-roof chapel have been canceled. Bishop Ndhlovu and others say they lave lost refrigerators, televisions and DVD players to the utility’s blackouts and surges.
Zambia’s plan, like the plans of dozens of other nations, is to build its way out of the power crunch. Zesco plans $1.2 billion in generating upgrades and new capacity, financed mostly by China and India...The World Bank says its financing of power projects in sub-Saharan Africa is ballooning, from $250 million five years ago to $660 million last year to $1 billion in 2007.
But many plans remain just that. Issues like creditworthiness, lax regulation, domestic politics and the sheer difficulty of sending power over rundown grids to the customer make outside investments in power stations tougher than they appear, said Tore Horvei, the chief operating officer of South Africa's CIC Energy Corporation.
The best answer, most experts consulted agree, would be for nations to cooperate on regional power solutions. One or two large regional plants, they say, could supply power more cheaply and efficiently than dozens of smaller ones. But while that may be logical, Mr. Horvei said, “it’s very challenging in practice to do so.” “National pride and everything else comes in,” he added. There is an alternative: saving energy. Namibia plans a wind farm on its southern coast, while in South Africa, Eskom has handed out five million fluorescent bulbs and 140,000 insulating blankets for water heaters, and has paid industrial customers to switch off equipment during periods of high demand.
Zambia’s plan, like the plans of dozens of other nations, is to build its way out of the power crunch. Zesco plans $1.2 billion in generating upgrades and new capacity, financed mostly by China and India...The World Bank says its financing of power projects in sub-Saharan Africa is ballooning, from $250 million five years ago to $660 million last year to $1 billion in 2007.
But many plans remain just that. Issues like creditworthiness, lax regulation, domestic politics and the sheer difficulty of sending power over rundown grids to the customer make outside investments in power stations tougher than they appear, said Tore Horvei, the chief operating officer of South Africa's CIC Energy Corporation.
The best answer, most experts consulted agree, would be for nations to cooperate on regional power solutions. One or two large regional plants, they say, could supply power more cheaply and efficiently than dozens of smaller ones. But while that may be logical, Mr. Horvei said, “it’s very challenging in practice to do so.” “National pride and everything else comes in,” he added. There is an alternative: saving energy. Namibia plans a wind farm on its southern coast, while in South Africa, Eskom has handed out five million fluorescent bulbs and 140,000 insulating blankets for water heaters, and has paid industrial customers to switch off equipment during periods of high demand.
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