Tanzanian market being weaned from leaded fuel
Posted on : Monday , 9th February 2015
Energy and Water Utilities Regulatory Authority (Ewura) Director General, Mr Felix Ngamlagosi, and acting Director of Petroleum, Mr Gerald Maganga said in Dar es Salaam recently that the local market has still got sulfur enriched fuel with 5000ppm which will gradually be phased out “We still have stocks of sulfur enriched fuel products at our pump stations because its stocks were ordered in the past,” Mr Ngamlagosi said.
He pointed out that the country’s policy requires that fuel with 5000ppm is eradicated from the market because of its negative effects on the environment.
“Petrol with sulfur content exceeding the 50ppm is no longer being imported into the country,” Mr Maganga seconded his boss noting that the 5000ppm petrol will soon become extinct in the local market.
Last September, Ewura informed oil marketing companies that diesel and petrol with more than 50ppm will stop being imported by January 2015.
Addressing stakeholders at a meeting held in Dar es Salaam, Mr Maganga said the country which has no refinery of its own, has made significant progress towards getting rid of sulfur enriched fuel
The Ewura acting Petroleum Director said sulfur enriched diesel and fuel has negative effects to human health, the environment and vehicles themselves.
“But using fuel with sulfur has also negative impacts on the economy,” he pointed out. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)’s Partnership for Clean Fuel and Vehicles has since 2012 supported developing countries improve fuel and vehicle technologies that reduce air pollution.
Sulfur enriched fuel is less efficient hence vehicles use more of it to cover a certain distance compared to sulfur free fuel. UNEP argues that independent, peer-reviewed scientific studies have established that eliminating leaded fuel worldwide will avoid 1.2 million premature deaths and 2.4 trillion US dollars in health and economic costs annually.
The dangers of airborne lead are well-known, especially with respect to lead’s impacts on brain and other development in children, UNEP said in a recent report
“Doctors tell us even small amounts of lead can lower a child’s intellectual quotient level and shorten attention span,” the report noted saying countries that have used leaded fuel have the largest source of airborne lead.
Source : IN 2 EAST AFRICA
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