Mara River fish deaths, poisoning now investigated
What you need to know:
- The minister also directed the team, apart from investigating the cause, to give long and short tern proposals on what steps should be taken to encounter the situation.
Musoma. The Minister of State in the Vice President’s Office (Union and Environment), Mr Selemani Jafo, has formed a team to probe the cause of Mara River waters turning blackish as fish reportedly dead in the river.
The 11-person team of experts was unveiled yesterday by the minister in Musoma District, Mara Region, after the former had paid a one-day fact finding visit to the river.
During his visit, Mr Jafo admitted that the situation there was not good and called for urgent steps to be taken to put things under control.
He said the team, under its chairman Prof Samuel Mayere, from the Faculty of Chemistry at the University Dar es Salaam (UDSM), has been given seven days to come up with findings.
The other members are National Environment Management Council (Nemc) director Samuel Gwamaka; Dr Charles Kasanzu from UDSM (Geology) and Daniel Nio, director for Control at the Office of the Government Chief Chemist.
The team also comprises of Renatus Shinu, director of the Board of the Lake Victoria Water Basin; Baraka Sekadende, director of the Tanzania Fisheries Research Institute for the Lake Zone and a member from the President’s Office.
The others are Yusufu Kuwaya (Mara Regional Commissioner’s office) and Faraja Ngeregeza (Assistant director for the biodiversity issues in the VP’s Office (Union and Environment)).
He also named Dr Kessy Kuruya, head of the Faculty of Chemistry at UDSM and Dr Nedovuto Mollel from the Authority for Plant Health and Pests Management.
The minister also directed the team, apart from investigating the cause, to give long and short tern proposals on what steps should be taken to encounter the situation.
“This team has a mix of experts from different departments as our aim is to get the real cause of the situation so that we can know what should be done,” he said.
“This is because you cannot dispense medicine to a patient if you don’t know the disease that troubles that patient,” said the minister.
Apart from that, Mr Jaffo also directed the team to examine other water sources including water wells and swamps located around the river so that to see whether they had also been affected.
