Blitz Bureau
There were “tears of laughter and joy” as a convoy carrying food aid reached the Sudan capital, Khartoum, for the first time since civil war erupted in April 2023.
A revolution in vehicle fuel is gaining momentum in Tanzania, but a lack of filling stations means it is stuck in second gear, according to BBC. Like Nigeria and some other countries on the continent, Tanzania is beginning to embrace compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative to petrol and diesel.
CNG is seen as cleaner and better for the environment than fossil fuels, but its relative cheapness is the biggest draw for the 5,000 or so motorists in the East African state who have embraced the change – particularly commercial drivers. This represents a small fraction of Tanzania’s vehicles, but the early adopters are paving the way for a wider acceptance of CNG – the government reportedly wants near total adoption by the middle of the century.
The news agency said Tanzania has large reserves of gas under the sea and for those filling up, CNG can cost less than half its petrol equivalent. The push to encourage motorists to adopt CNG-powered vehicles in Tanzania began over a decade ago but did not start in earnest until 2018. Those in charge of the project acknowledge that they did not foresee the rapid rise in demand.
Aristides Kato, the CNG project manager at the state-oil firm, the Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), tells the BBC that there “has been a very drastic increase” recently in the use of natural gas by vehicle owners, the news agency said. “We found ourselves not having enough infrastructure to support the demand for gas-using vehicles,” he admits.
The authorities, though, want more people to switch to CNG because it is a relatively clean-burning fossil fuel that results in fewer emissions of nearly all types of air pollutants, according to the UN.
