Pfenninger.org

This week, we drove up to the northermost parts of Tanzania. These are some of the truly remote parts of the country. The Kagera river forms the border between Tanzania and its northern neighbour, Uganda. We crossed over to Uganda for a few hours (technically illegally, since I didn't have a passport with me, but the immigration officer was all friendly and welcomed me to Uganda -- it helps to be with a well-known local).

This bridge at the border checkpoint is only a few years old. Before it was constructed, there was a small boat ferrying cars from one side of the river to the other.

Just about one kilometer downriver from the border crossing, on the Ugandan side of the river, a ruined structure stands in the floods. Yes, there was a reasonably big hydro power plant here, supplying electricity to the entire area. However, the Ugandan dictator Idi Amin apparently thought it a good idea to destroy the plant when he invaded Tanzania in 1978¹ (the plant was supplying electricity to Tanzania, too). Tanzania's president, Nyerere, counterattacked and Idi Amin's regime was overthrown in 1979, but plans to rebuild the power plant have remain shelved to date.

The power lines are gone completely, and goats now graze on the former site of the plant.

All that remains apart from the ruined structures in the river are some rusting turbine parts lying in the grass.

1. A TIME Magazine article from 1978 gives some details on the invasion [↩]