The Arusha Urban Water and Sewerage Authority (AUWSA), has been compelled to ration water supplies to all Arusha city residents due to the swelling human population and change in behavioral weather patterns in the country.
Authorities at the Tanzania-Kenya border in Namanga area of Longido District have raised alarm over the possibility of having Al-Shabaab insurgents infiltrating into the country through the highly permeable borderline.
“The over 200 kilometers long borderline is mostly wilderness dotted with hundreds of ‘Panya routes’ through which, human trafficking business thrives,” said Mr Albert Kishe the head of immigration department at Namanga.
Six people have died in both Arusha and Kilimanjaro regions, from ongoing floods affecting the Northern Zone. The Police in both precincts have confirmed the deaths.
Two people were killed when a semi-trailer truck they were travelling in was swept by floods in the Makuyuni location of Monduli District, along Arusha-Dodoma road following a heavy downpour that hit the area last week.
Ngorongoro Conservation Area Authority (NCAA) has disbursed Shs. 535 million to buy maize and distribute it to hundreds of residents living in the area who are in dire need of food.
There are more than 60,000 people in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, mainly Maasai Pastoralists, now facing famine due to the prevailing drought and also due to the fact that farming is not allowed in the area.
Manyara region has received 8,097 tonnes of maize from the Prime Minister’s Office to be distributed to residents of its six districts facing an acute food shortage
Manyara’s Regional Administrative Secretary, Mr. Claudio Bitegeko said Babati town has been allocated 1,000 tonnes, Babati Rural 1,246 tonnes, Kiteto 2,466 tonnes, Mbulu 1,474 tonnes, Simanjiro 1,901 tonnes and Hanang seven tonnes.
As acute food shortage caused by drought hits the ceiling in Ngorongoro, the District authorities are appealing to the government to grant them permit to buy cereal directly from the national food reserve agency.
The concern was raised here during the District Full-Council meeting specifically held to address the increasing problem of food shortages facing thousands of people in Ngorongoro.
An outbreak of measles which has been plaguing Ngorongoro District for the last ten weeks has so far killed 20 children in the remote area of northern Tanzania.
The District’s Medical Officer Dr Kennedy Israel explained here that the highly contagious disease, also known as ‘Rubeola,’ was first reported in the Kakesio Village in late April 2011 before spreading further in the District and so far 20 children have lost their lives from the 650 infections recorded in the area.
Regional leaders in Arusha say the region could face a serious food shortage this year because of insufficient rains.
They said about a third of the regional population would shortly need relief food supplies from the government.
"At least 512,827 people will be in critical situation out of a total of 782,925 who don't have enough stocks", the Regional Consultative Committee (RCC) was told recently.
Rotarian Shriniwas Kendale, visiting from India on behalf of Rotary International, launches the distribution of REMIT (Rotarians Eliminating Malaria in Tanzania) nets at Kaloleni in Arusha municipality.
Also present was Kelvin from Dar es Salaam who came especially to train the community in spraying the inside of their houses against Mosquitos.
Tanzania will be among the few African
countries in which the newly developed 'water efficient maize' seeds' varieties
are soon to be tested.
A statement from the African Agricultural
Technology Foundation (AATF) based in Nairobi, indicates that crop specialists
in Kenya and Uganda have laid ground for confined field trials to commence
before the end of this year for new variety of maize genetically modified
to survive recurrent droughts that threaten over 300 million Africans depending
on the staple.
Canada, Ireland impressed as pupils get
school meals
By Staff Reporter
Close to 200,000 pupils attending about
400 primary schools in six districts of Arusha and Manyara regions now
enjoy midday meals courtesy of the World Food Program's 'Food for Education'
initiative.
Canada and Ireland on the other hand
have both pledged to continue supporting school feeding programs that currently
benefit thousands of children in drought stricken areas of Tanzania. The
countries' envoys who visited Arusha last week said.
A Dutch non-governmental organisation
PharmAccess Foundation has raised Sh. 140 million for the rehabilitation
of a health centre run by the Prisons Department in Arusha.
The rehabilitation is aimed to improve
the services of the health facility under the Tanzania Prisons, Police
and Immigration (TPPI) project funded by the organisation.
The exercise started in February this
year, according to the project manager Maligo Katebalila. He revealed this
during a meeting held here recently for the health staff under the Prisons
Department.
Representatives of the UK- based Mondo
Foundation International Development are in Tanzania for a two-week visit
to assess the impact of water supply and school building projects that
they have been funding.
Mondo Director Antony Lunch said while
in Arusha region they would visit Emooi primary school, Ilkonerei primary
school, Olmuringaringa, Selian, Lemanyata and Matimu, all in Arusha rural
district.
The guests were happy with the good use
to which the classrooms had been put in those schools as pupils congestion
had been overcome.
The Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tanzania
(ELCT) has provided more than 210 metric tons of food to aid people in
northern Tanzania who face hunger as a result of prolonged drought in 2008
and 2009.
ELCT Deputy Secretary General for Planning
and Development, Mr Mallumbo W. Mallumbo said last week that priority in
food distribution was given to the destitute including the elderly, widows,
orphans and the disabled.
He said that financial assistance allowed
the church to distribute 162 metric tons of cereals out of which 36 metric
Kiwawa Children's Home and Orphanage
of Arumeru district last week benefited from the donation of food stuffs,
stationery and detergents from students of Arusha Modern School.
The students raised Tsh 1.5 Million from
their own pockets to purchase donations.
The school principal, Mr. Phillip Wasike,
told the orphanage's children that his students were keen to help as they
valued the disadvantaged as they value themselves.
Various challenges prevent rural people
in Tanzania to access efficient sources of energy or technologies. As a
result, the majority of people in the areas use kerosene and firewood for
lighting and cooking. Use of such sources of energy produces a gas that
contributes to unwanted climate change and leads to emission of smoke which
is said to cause cancer. Women and children are the main victims of cancer
caused by smoke.
In addition, the current energy situation
overburdens women and limits advancement in education and communication
Residents of Oljoro and Muriet wards
of Arumeru District and those residing in Oljoro Number 10 in Simanjiro
district now have access to clean and safe water after completing phase
two of a community water project.
Speaking during the launch of a new board
for the Community Based Health Care Council, the project coordinator Shija
Mlingwa said the project had been sponsored by Simavi and Water Aid organizations
but implemented through CBHCC.
The Japanese government has pledged a fund
of US $ 95,919 toward a water project for the drought stricken Longido
District.
The grant fund offered to an NGO -- Ilkisongo
Pastoralist Initiatives (IPI) -- of Longido through the Japanese Grant
Assistance for Grassroots Human Security Project will be used for rehabilitation
of pipelines, cattle troughs and fitting material for the first phase of
water related projects.
Japanese ambassador in Tanzania Hiroshi
Nakagawa officially presented the grant cheque to the Director of the IPI,
The Belgium Pastoralists Survival Fund
- TRIAS- which supports entrepreneurs in 13 countries in Africa, Asia and
Latin America has come to the rescue of pastoralists organizations in Longido
by providing them with Tsh.4,365,393,200 for capacity building.
Benefiting organizations from the fund
are Longido Community Development Organization, Pastoral Women Council,
Ujamaa Community Resource Trust and Tanzania Natural Resources Forum.
TRIAS Tanzania Project Coordinator, Tony
Rottjers, handed over the project documents to the Longido Acting Executive
