THE Acting Kilombero District Executive Director Freddy Eliasaph puts ten years as the maximum remaining life of Kilombero Valley.
District Wildlife Officer Madaraka Amani, thinks there are only five years left for the unique natural resources which are endemic to the district to disappear.
Kilombero District Council Chairman Ramadhan Kiombile is non-committal but admits that time is running out for the various authorities to take action in order to save the abundant natural resources in the district from extinction.
However, a team of journalists from the Journalists Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET) who visited various parts of the district, concluded that it will take just about three years before almost all unique natural resources disappear.
Within these three years, so the scribes predict, residents of Kilombero District, the grain basket of the region and indeed the whole country, will start experiencing hunger and thirst as food production is gradually decreasing and water sources have been drying up over the years.
It doesn’t matter whether these predictions are correct or not; the important message here is that the Kilombero valley and its natural resources are going down the drain and unprecedented efforts and political will are needed to save these resources.
What is quite obvious is that the valley’s ‘death’ will not only bring woes to the locals, but it will have a resounding effect well beyond the country’s borders.
August, as is the case this year around, is the month when the rice harvesting season comes to the end in Kilombero District. Currently, trading in rice and other related businesses now flourish in Ifakara, Mbingu, Mlimba and other small towns in the district where hundreds of bags of rice are stacked outside milling machines waiting to be processed.
In the meantime journalists observed at least 40 lorries carrying bags of processed rice leaving Ifakara town everyday, for Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Mombasa. Surely these convoys would disappear as soon as Kilombero valley ceases to be “the land of milk and honey” that it has always been.
And this is what is killing the valley: Rampant deforestation, the use of illegal fishing methods, poaching, degradation of land and water resources and horrendous destruction of the environment.
The most vulnerable people who will suffer the effects of the on-going resource depletion are the local communities, most of whom are farmers and fishermen. There is a third group which, however, locals say has no concern for the sustainability of natural resources and the environment in general.
“Things are getting worse because our livelihoods are disappearing. Deforestation is rampant, fisheries and water sources are degraded due to poisoning, pollution and environmental destruction.
People are worried about their future; things will never be the same again in this area,” the Chairman of Mofu village government, Linus Ngwila, told Jet members. The journalists were visiting Kilombero District for the second time in one year, to look at the conservation of the environment.
He explained that environmental destruction has been compounded by uncontrolled grazing of livestock by pastoralists, new settlers in the district whose number has been increasing over the years.
The newcomers, he said, take their herds wherever they like without due concern for the environment or other members of communities who earn their living through farming of fishing.
“These people water their livestock in the swamps and in the shallow rivers. They also graze on the river banks and close to swamps thereby not only poisoning the water, but also destroying fish breeding sites.
Ther are several cases of people suffering dysentery because of drinking the polluted water. In remote areas, such cases have gone unreported but we know what is happening there,” he said.
According to the chairman, pastoralists cut trees in swamps and river banks, a situation which accelerates soil erosion resulting in siltation of rivers and swamps. One of the degraded waterbodies which plays an important role in the Kilombero ecosystem is the Kibasila swamp located a few kilometres south of Mofu village.
Records available from Kilombero District Council show that a few years ago the size of Kibasila swamp was 2,200 square hectares but current estimate put it to half its original size.
Michael Sambalo, Mofu Village Executive Officer explained that among other things, the swamp is a reservoir which discharges water into the Kilombero River so that it can maintain its perennial flows.
The swamp is also home to unique species of birds and plants including freshwater mangroves and toads which give birth instead of spawning. It is for this reason that some scientists from Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro town conduct research on various animal and plant species available in the swamp from time to time.
“This swamp is a breeding site for rare fish species found in Kilomero and Rufiji rivers. The fish come to this swamp during the rainy season to breed and the fingerlings become fully grown by the end of the rainy season and swim back to the rivers,” explained Sambalo, adding that the freshwater mangroves are good breeding sites for fish because their interwoven roots protect the fish from animals and snares of fishermen, but these are also favoured by pastoralists for construction of their bomas.
“So if this swamp dries up, it will have a direct effect on the water supply in Kilombero and Rufiji Rivers and rare fish species will become extinct,” he stressed.
Kilombero District Wildlife Officer Madaraka Amani also highlighted the importance of the Kibasila Swamp.
“I first learned about Kibasila swamp from a Russian professor when I was at a college. He told us that the swamp could be spotted by satellite because of its unique features and as such, was one of the areas where scientists had conducted various researches.
But this natural treasure of international importance is going down the drain,” he said. Journalists visited the swamp and saw large herds of livestock gazing on its fringes which had ankle deep water.
They were also shown where the watermark had reached only three years ago and by rough estimates, the swamp had receded by about six hundred meters during the period, leaving freshwater mangroves and other types of trees on dry, dusty ground.
District Wildlife Officer Madaraka Amani, thinks there are only five years left for the unique natural resources which are endemic to the district to disappear.
Kilombero District Council Chairman Ramadhan Kiombile is non-committal but admits that time is running out for the various authorities to take action in order to save the abundant natural resources in the district from extinction.
However, a team of journalists from the Journalists Environmental Association of Tanzania (JET) who visited various parts of the district, concluded that it will take just about three years before almost all unique natural resources disappear.
Within these three years, so the scribes predict, residents of Kilombero District, the grain basket of the region and indeed the whole country, will start experiencing hunger and thirst as food production is gradually decreasing and water sources have been drying up over the years.
It doesn’t matter whether these predictions are correct or not; the important message here is that the Kilombero valley and its natural resources are going down the drain and unprecedented efforts and political will are needed to save these resources.
What is quite obvious is that the valley’s ‘death’ will not only bring woes to the locals, but it will have a resounding effect well beyond the country’s borders.
August, as is the case this year around, is the month when the rice harvesting season comes to the end in Kilombero District. Currently, trading in rice and other related businesses now flourish in Ifakara, Mbingu, Mlimba and other small towns in the district where hundreds of bags of rice are stacked outside milling machines waiting to be processed.
In the meantime journalists observed at least 40 lorries carrying bags of processed rice leaving Ifakara town everyday, for Dar es Salaam, Nairobi and Mombasa. Surely these convoys would disappear as soon as Kilombero valley ceases to be “the land of milk and honey” that it has always been.
And this is what is killing the valley: Rampant deforestation, the use of illegal fishing methods, poaching, degradation of land and water resources and horrendous destruction of the environment.
The most vulnerable people who will suffer the effects of the on-going resource depletion are the local communities, most of whom are farmers and fishermen. There is a third group which, however, locals say has no concern for the sustainability of natural resources and the environment in general.
“Things are getting worse because our livelihoods are disappearing. Deforestation is rampant, fisheries and water sources are degraded due to poisoning, pollution and environmental destruction.
People are worried about their future; things will never be the same again in this area,” the Chairman of Mofu village government, Linus Ngwila, told Jet members. The journalists were visiting Kilombero District for the second time in one year, to look at the conservation of the environment.
He explained that environmental destruction has been compounded by uncontrolled grazing of livestock by pastoralists, new settlers in the district whose number has been increasing over the years.
The newcomers, he said, take their herds wherever they like without due concern for the environment or other members of communities who earn their living through farming of fishing.
“These people water their livestock in the swamps and in the shallow rivers. They also graze on the river banks and close to swamps thereby not only poisoning the water, but also destroying fish breeding sites.
Ther are several cases of people suffering dysentery because of drinking the polluted water. In remote areas, such cases have gone unreported but we know what is happening there,” he said.
According to the chairman, pastoralists cut trees in swamps and river banks, a situation which accelerates soil erosion resulting in siltation of rivers and swamps. One of the degraded waterbodies which plays an important role in the Kilombero ecosystem is the Kibasila swamp located a few kilometres south of Mofu village.
Records available from Kilombero District Council show that a few years ago the size of Kibasila swamp was 2,200 square hectares but current estimate put it to half its original size.
Michael Sambalo, Mofu Village Executive Officer explained that among other things, the swamp is a reservoir which discharges water into the Kilombero River so that it can maintain its perennial flows.
The swamp is also home to unique species of birds and plants including freshwater mangroves and toads which give birth instead of spawning. It is for this reason that some scientists from Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro town conduct research on various animal and plant species available in the swamp from time to time.
“This swamp is a breeding site for rare fish species found in Kilomero and Rufiji rivers. The fish come to this swamp during the rainy season to breed and the fingerlings become fully grown by the end of the rainy season and swim back to the rivers,” explained Sambalo, adding that the freshwater mangroves are good breeding sites for fish because their interwoven roots protect the fish from animals and snares of fishermen, but these are also favoured by pastoralists for construction of their bomas.
“So if this swamp dries up, it will have a direct effect on the water supply in Kilombero and Rufiji Rivers and rare fish species will become extinct,” he stressed.
Kilombero District Wildlife Officer Madaraka Amani also highlighted the importance of the Kibasila Swamp.
“I first learned about Kibasila swamp from a Russian professor when I was at a college. He told us that the swamp could be spotted by satellite because of its unique features and as such, was one of the areas where scientists had conducted various researches.
But this natural treasure of international importance is going down the drain,” he said. Journalists visited the swamp and saw large herds of livestock gazing on its fringes which had ankle deep water.
They were also shown where the watermark had reached only three years ago and by rough estimates, the swamp had receded by about six hundred meters during the period, leaving freshwater mangroves and other types of trees on dry, dusty ground.
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