Tanzania: hydro-electric power plant in Selous National Park?

update (17 March 2011): Daily News: Stigler’s Gorge power project for new study
The government plans to conduct a new feasibility study on hydro-electric generation project at Stigler's Gorge on the River Rufiji Basin. The move follows suggestions from various stakeholders who say the project is expected to bring to an end the prevailing power defict in the country. [more]

The East African country of Tanzania is not only planning to build a highway right through the Serengeti, but also a hydro-electric power plant at Stiegler’s Gorge along the River Rufiji in the Selous Game Reserve. According to a blogpost on wolfganghthome.wordpress.com, the roughly 40 years old plan to build such a power plant is currenlty considered to alleviate the chronic power shortages the country is suffering from.


View Stiegler’s Gorge, Pwani, Tanzania in a larger map

The electricity shortage, which is having a massive impact on the country’s manufacturing sector, as well as businesses such as the hospitality sector, is largely caused by the lack of preventive maintenance of equipment, a lack of upgrading existing facilities and a lacking supply of fuel to the standby plants in time.
Rather than repairing, refurbishing, and upgrading the existing facilities, the Tanzanian government is now planing to threaten another iconic landmark of the East African country. And I alwas thought that Tourism is leading the economy of The Land of Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar and the Serengeti... Shame on you Tanzania!