Climate change crisis in Tanzania is real, says minister
Dar es Salaam. As climate change takes centre stage at the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Tanzania is among the countries that need effective climate action, with consequences of climate change becoming more than obvious.
More than 100 nations have converged on New York for the 76th UNGA, which will discuss, among other issues, global recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and climate change, now a serious global problem.
The Minister of State in the Vice President’s Office (Union and Environment), Mr Selemani Jafo, told The Citizen yesterday that the agenda on urgent climate action is of importance to Tanzania as the country has been left vulnerable to rising water levels in oceans and lakes and also danger of drought due to decreasing rainfall season.
He said in recent years the country has experienced a rise in water levels in Lakes Victoria and Tanganyika, putting a risk for the operations near the water bodies such as hotels and fish markets.
“For example, in Lake Victoria, some hotels have closed operations due to rising water levels. Similarly for areas in Kigoma Region including Kibirizi, where water has risen to as high as two metres now,” said minister Jafo.
According to Jafo, there is also a danger that some of the islets in Tanzania-island will disappear due to rising sea levels.
Early this year, the Lake Victoria Basin Commission reported that the water body rose to a new record level of 13.42 metres: marginally higher than the 13.41-metre mark recorded in 1964.
Hotels such as Malaika, Tilapia and Ryan’s Bay had to close business. Rising water levels also affected such areas as Shede (alias Mitatu), Mswahili, Mkuyuni and Butimba streets in Nyamagana and Igombe ‘A’ in Ilemela District.
In the Kigoma Region, the rising Lake Tanganyika water was reported to have cause displacements of 60 households in an area of 72 acres.
Mr Jafo also pointed out the danger of drought due to projected shortage of rainfall as reported by the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA).
“There is a need for people to understand the importance of preserving and protecting the biodiversity,” said Jafo.
In its Metrological report, TMA warned that for the rainy season starting in October, many regions will get rains below normal.
Regions that receive rains twice a year, but now face the adverse impacts of weather change, include Arusha, Manyara Kilimanjaro, Morogoro, Dar es Salaam, Coast, and Tanga.
Others are Unguja and Pemba isles, Lake Victoria Basin (Kagera, Geita, Mwanza, Shinyanga, Simiyu and Mara regions) and the northern part of Kigoma (Kibondo and Kakonko districts).
Over four years ago during a Parliamentary session, the-then Minister for State in the Vice President’s Office (Union and Environment) Mr January Makamba - who is now the Energy minister - said there were threats that if no action was taken, 61 percent of Tanzania’s land mass would be on the verge of becoming a desert.
He said human activities, associated with energy source needs,as well as irresponsible farming and livestock keeping, make Tanzania lose on average a million acres of forests a year.
The situation is reported to be worsening in Singida, Dodoma, Shinyanga, Manyara, Simiyu, Geita and Arusha regions.
Yesterday, Mr Jafo stressed that more awareness is needed on protection of the ozone layer whose depletion is caused by the release of chlorofluorocarbons (CHCs) gases.
“Recently during the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer, we encouraged people to use electronic equipment that uses less CHCs because its impact is significant in the environment,” he said.
The minister also said that it is important for the government to participate in global climate debates in order to address the policy implementations of some of the global agreements such as the Vienna Convention to protect the ozone layer, Africa’s Kigali Declaration on forest landscape restoration, and may more others.
