Availability of electricity in developing countries is by no doubt a tool for development.
However, the development cannot be sustainable if necessary back-up facilities are not in
place.
This is argued and demonstrated in this paper, using the last 10 years of development in
Zanzibar as a case. In Zanzibar, the demand for electricity has grown fast and the amount of
billed electricity increased with more than 50 % from year 2003 to year 2007. The highest
increase can be seen in the medium sized industries sector, where the tourism sector consisted
of a large proportion.
With increased dependency of electricity, the fundament for a more vulnerable society is
also created. This is illustrated by the economic and social depression that hit Zanzibar during
the breakdowns of the power system that occurred for one month in 2008 and for almost three
months in 2009-2010. As there where no public back-up generation facility in Zanzibar, this
resulted in a total electrical blackout and the citizens had to rely on private electricity
generation. In the paper some examples of the consequences are given.