Maintenance issues and climate change-induced water shortages have caused a 400-megawatt electricity shortfall in Tanzania, triggering power rationing across the East African nation, the state power supplier said.

Tanzania’s national grid, which has an installed capacity of more than 1,900 MW, was suffering from broken infrastructure at gas wells and gas-fired power stations, as well as reduced water levels at hydropower dams, said Gissima Nyamo-Hanga, managing director of the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO).

TANESCO, which is wholly owned by the government, expects to complete maintenance operations and resolve the shortfall by the end of March next year, Nyamo-Hanga told reporters late on Wednesday.

Despite the government embarking on one of the fastest roll-outs of electricity access in Sub-Saharan Africa, only 38% of Tanzanians have power, according to the World Bank.

Nearly two thirds of Tanzania’s electricity is generated from natural gas, and around 30% from hydropower. The largest peak electricity demand ever recorded was 1,431 MW in May this year, up 7% from a year before, the energy ministry says.

“We expect that this problem will start easing within two weeks, and our plan is to reduce the shortage by an average of 100 MW a month,” Nyamo-Hanga said.

The 2,115 MW Julius Nyerere hydropower dam started filling with water in December last year and is anticipated to be finished by June 2024, more than doubling the country’s installed capacity, according to the energy ministry.

The government is engaged in several other power projects including a 150 MW solar farm as part of its goal to reach 5,000 MW capacity by 2025.

Brazil’s government is preparing a task force to provide emergency assistance to inhabitants in the Amazon region hit by a severe drought that has impacted the rivers that are their life support, Environment Minister Marina Silva said.

Low river levels and hotter waters have killed masses of fish seen floating on river surfaces, contaminating the drinking water, she said.

Some 111,000 people have been affected in a region where a much of the population’s protein comes from fishing, which will be suspended for some time, she added.

The civil defense agency warned that the drought could eventually impact up to 500,000 people in the Amazon.

The Port of Manaus website said the Rio Negro’s water level fell by an average of 30 centimeters (11.8 inches) a day since mid-September and stood at 16.4 meters (54 feet) on Wednesday, about six meters below its level on the same day of last year.

The federal task force would be airlifted by the Air Force to the states of Amazonas and Acre with water, food, medicines and other resources, Silva said.

The government also allocated 140 million reais ($27.76 million) to dredging rivers and ports in the region to keep transport flowing when water levels drop, she added.

The drought in the Amazon, like the flooding in the south of Brazil, results from the El Niño phenomenon, which warms the surface water in the Pacific Ocean. This year the impact has been greater than normal, weather experts say.

Heavy rain from a tropical depression hit northern and north-central Vietnam, causing flooding that halted traffic in the capital Hanoi and sparked warnings of landslides on Thursday.

Some Hanoi districts recorded up to 250 mm (10 inches) of rain on Thursday morning, according to the national weather centre.

The premier’s office directed provincial authorities to take action to protect residential areas that faced a high risk of landslides and flash floods.

Downpours have pounded Hanoi since early Thursday morning, submerging streets, Reuters witnesses said, with traffic turning chaotic at intersections and flood waters rising calf-high in some districts.

Video on local media showed cars and motorcycles abandoned in Hanoi streets, while footage of northern provinces showed fast-flowing, mud-brown water, and schools and homes damaged and soaked in flood water.

A conference on Thursday morning organised by Eurocham was delayed by about two hours because speakers, including the EU ambassador to Vietnam, could not reach the venue due to the flooded roads, according to participants.

Vietnam is prone to destructive storms and flooding, with 451 people killed or missing last year in natural disasters such as floods and landslides, according to government statistics.

Torrential rain battered central Greece, flooding streets, homes and businesses in the port city of Volos and on the island of Evia, just three weeks after devastating Storm Daniel killed 16 people in the wider region.

A private helicopter crashed into the sea in northern Evia, east of the Greek capital Athens, and a search and rescue operation was underway.

It was not immediately clear what caused the accident.

More than 250 people have been evacuated from the area since Storm Elias struck on Wednesday afternoon, the fire brigade said on Thursday, adding that it had so far received 1,200 calls for help.

The storm hit Volos with rain so heavy that water levels in the city and its suburbs rose rapidly in a few hours. A nearby stream overflowed, adding to the flooding.

The mayor of Volos said that by Wednesday night, power outages caused by the storm and flooding had plunged 80% of the city into darkness. Authorities have stopped all vehicles from going onto the roads.

On Thursday morning, the storm had moved towards the island of Evia were some villages in northern Evia have been ordered to evacuate, state ERT TV said.

Storm Elias is the second major storm to hit the region since Daniel, the most intense storm to hit Greece since records began in 1930, battered the region for three days earlier in September.

U.S. Energy Department’s loan office on Thursday closed a $3 billion partial loan guarantee for a project to provide more than 100,000 homeowners with rooftop solar units and batteries and allow them to feed power into the local electric grid.

Sunnova Energy’s (NOVA.N) Project Hestia will give out loans to 75,000-115,000 homeowners throughout the U.S. to enable them to install rooftop solar, home battery systems and smart energy software that helps them use energy efficiently, the DOE said.

The project could potentially avoid 7.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions and generate 568 megawatts (MW) of emissions-free power over 25 years, it added.

Equipping homes with smart software and home energy generation can allow Sunnova to make them into Virtual Power Plants (VPP), networks of small energy-producing or storage devices that are pooled together to serve the electricity grid.

The Energy Department said on Thursday that this is the single largest commitment ever made by the U.S. government to solar power, and the DOE’s first loan guarantee for a VPP.

Project Hestia would target lower income homeowners and could create as many as 3,400 jobs, the Energy Department said.

VPPs have been on the rise in the U.S. since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2020 allowed them to compete in wholesale power markets.

They are also being used in Australia, Japan and Europe by companies including Statkraft (STATKF.UL), Shell-owned (SHEL.L) Next Kraftwerke, and Tesla Inc.

Skardu Fort, also known as Kharpocho Fort, is a historic fortress which is located above the city of Skardu in the Gilgit-Baltistan Region, in the northern part of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

As there are some sources which claim that the fortress was built in 8 century, it is widely considered that it was built by King Ali Sher at the end of 16 century, and it was named Skardu Fort because it is considered to be the “King of Forts”.

With its important location, it was a primary target for attacks and occupation, and since the fort lies on the eastern face of the Khardrong Hill, also known as Mindoq-Khar or Castle of Queen Mindoq, it overlooks and protects the town that has the same name.

Within the fortress there aren’t structures which survived the time, however, there is a mosque that is considered to have been built with the arrival of the Islam in the region.

Still, the fortress was designed according to the model of some other fortresses, such as the Potala Palace in Tibet, China, but Skardu Fort was not fortunate enough to survive the plentiful campaigns of conquest, which finally was completely destroyed in 1857 under the guidance of the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir and head of the Jamwal Rajput clan, Ranbir Singh.

After the First Kashmir War, with a long siege of Skardu, the fortress became part of Kashmir that is still controlled by Pakistan, and at that time it was renamed into Gilgit-Baltistan.

Lastly, always succeeding to impress everyone who is eager and adventurous enough to visit this impressive Pakistani treasure, the Skardu Fort shall continue to tell the story of its long past that saw quite a lot of conquest and destruction, which in the end has only most of its walls to be the witnesses of those times.