Tanzania News

Tanzania news, views and interesting items brought to you by TaZnews.

This issue: Updated June 2008

Tanzania is beckoning Indian tourists
Lake Natron is safe - Indian firm halts soda ash project
London Marathon - Blood and water fuel Tanzania’s Maasai warriors'
Norway gives Tanzania $100 million for forests
The 8th Sullivan Summit recently held in Arusha
Higher fuel and food costs challenge Tanzania's economy
HIV/AIDS in Tanzania reduced

Tanzania is beckoning Indian tourists

Tanzania, as tourist destination is attracting increasing numbers of tourist arrivals year on year, but only 15,000 of them have so far hailed from India.

A two-city road-show tour by Tanzanian tourism ministry officials and tour operators has been showcasing Tanzania’s diverse tourism products -including adventure tourism through game viewing, trekking, deep sea fishing, snorkeling, scuba diving, cultural tourism and the iconic Mount Kilimanjaro, the second highest peak in the world, the highest in Africa and the highest free standing mountain in the world.

Tanzania is targeting mid- to high-end Indian travelers with an annual income of Rs.5 million and more.

Karibu Tanzania

Source: Reuters

Lake Natron is safe - Indian firm halts soda ash project

An Indian company that was keen to invest $500 million (about Sh600 billion) in a soda ash project along Lake Natron in Manyara district has pulled out.

Soda-ash is the common name for sodium carbonate, which can be used in making soap powders, glass and paper

The firm, Tata Chemicals, announced it was putting on hold its plans for a soda ash extraction and processing plant at Lake Natron due to intense pressure by environmental lobbyists.

Environmentalists from all over the world had opposed the project, fearing that the industrial extraction would affect the delicate mineral balance in the remote Lake Natron, killing the algae which the flamingos feed on and which gives them their pink pigment. The lesser flamingo could become extinct in five years if its habitat is destroyed.

Lake Natron is reported to be by far the most significant of only five sites in the world where lesser flamingos breed regularly and successfully. The breeding at Lake Natron accounts for 75% of all the world’s lesser flamingos.

Conservationists argued that the economic benefits of the plant would be insignificant, compared to its long-term negative effects on the environment and the country’s tourism sector.

Their reports stated, that based on flamingo tourism alone, Lake Natron has a value of close to $12 million a year. Lake Natron is safe

Source: Reuters

London Marathon - Blood and water fuel Tanzania's Maasai warriors

They survive on fresh blood drained from the neck of a living cow, they often run for days and nights on end to find water and their shoes are made from car tires cut up and strapped to their feet.

So running the London Marathon was no problem for six Maasai warriors who landed in Britain, clothed in a red robes and adorned with traditional beaded jewelry. They left their village of Elaui in northern Tanzania, as part of a campaign to raise money to find a vital water source (www.maasaimarathon.org).

They ran in traditional dress - a red "shuka" blanket toga and car-tire sandals - carrying spears and shields showing their running numbers, singing and dancing along the 26.2 mile route through the British capital.

The Maasai warriors, whose role is to protect and help provide for their people, hoped to raise enough money to find and access a fresh water source for their community.

Their efforts have so far raised in excess of £114,726

The money raised by the Maasai runners will fund a sonar ground survey, which will help locate subterranean water run tests on the quality and quantity of the water before drilling a full bore hole with a concrete cap and pump unit fitted. Work has started and clean drinking water in Eluai village will soon be a reality.

"..the finish line of the Flora London Marathon is not the finish. The finish is when we can turn on a tap in our village and get clean drinking water!" Isaya

Source: Reuters

Norway gives Tanzania $100 million for forest

Norway recently gave Tanzania $100 million over five years to cut deforestation in the East African country and try to reduce carbon emissions blamed for climate change.

Norway, the world's number five oil exporter, plans to make its economy "carbon neutral" by 2030, partly by buying emissions quotas abroad to offset its own greenhouse gas production.

As part of the agreement with Tanzania, Norway will support research, education and the development of pilot areas for reducing deforestation. Norway will also help develop ways to measure the amount of carbon captured by forests.

Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said the agreement would make Tanzania an example for other countries of incorporating forests into fighting climate change.

"How to do it, and how to combine the idea of rural development with creating new sinks for carbon dioxide by planting new trees is exactly what we are going to do in Tanzania," he said in Dar es Salaam after the deal was signed.

His office estimated that emissions of greenhouse gases from Tanzanian deforestation - at around 100 million tones a year - were roughly twice as much as Norway's annual emissions. In terms of forest destruction, Tanzania was surpassed only by Sudan and Zambia, it said.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete said the effects of climate change were already visible in his country with the melting of glaciers on Mount Kilimanjaro, the appearance of salt water in fresh water wells and the shrinking of lakes.

Source: Reuters

The 8th Sullivan summit recently held in Arusha

The Sullivan Summits are organized by the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation and held biennially in an African nation. The aim is to highlight key issues and best practices, stimulate discussion and define opportunities, promote private enterprise and foster high-level strategic partnerships for it is through these partnerships that Africa can realize its full potential.

The Eighth Leon Sullivan conference was the first gathering of its kind in Eastern Africa to take place on the foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro, the highest peak in Africa.

This year’s Leon Sullivan Foundation summit was the third biggest gathering of the African Diaspora in the US. The 23rd Africa Travel Association (ATA) first gathered in May 1998 and the thirty-third ATA conference from May 19 to 23 was be the second such gathering to be held in the same venue.

Located exactly at the center of African continent, Arusha welcomed African American delegates to experience modern hotels, lodges, restaurants and fleets of tourist vehicles.

The Arusha International Conference Center (AICC) and the Ngurdoto Mountain Lodge hosted the conference delegates.

Source: Arusha Times

Higher fuel and food costs challenge Tanzanian economy

Higher fuel and food costs are challenging Tanzania, one of Africa's fastest-growing economies, but the IMF considers that ample international reserves and a favorable crop outlook should help.

On the other hand slower global growth and record world oil prices could dampen Tanzanian growth, which the government has put at 7.8 percent in 2008 versus 7.3 percent in 2007.

Government data on April 23 showed Tanzania's inflation rate rose to 9.0 percent in March from 8.9 percent in February due to higher food prices.

Tanzania is among Africa's largest donor recipients, with about 40 percent of its 2007/2008 budget supported by foreign aid. Uncertainty over donor assistance for the budget has complicated preparations for the next fiscal year and monetary policy will be vital in ensuring that pressures from higher fuel and food prices do not spread to other sectors.

The Tanzanian economy still remains an attractive investment destination because of its political stability, especially in the areas of agriculture, tourism and mining.

Source: Reuters

HIV/AIDS in Tanzania reduced

In a campaign led by Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, over 2.3 million women and 1.8 million men from across the country took part in a voluntary blood screening campaign which kicked off in July 2007.

Tanzania has a population of over 40 million. Of the total number of people screened, 194,149 were tested positive for the HIV virus, according to Dr. Geoffrey Somi from the Tanzanian National AIDS Control Program.

The Tanzanian prime minister announced that the country's national HIV/AIDS infection rate had dropped to 5.8 percent in 2007, down from 7.0 percent in 2003.

The infection rate of women has dropped from 8.0 percent in 2003 to 6.8 percent in 2007 while the infection rate among men also plunged from 7.0 percent in 2003 to 4.7 percent in 2007.

An effective anti-HIV/AIDS campaign in Zanzibar has resulted in the infection rate dropping to 0.6 percent.

The campaign continues.

Source: Xinhua - Peoples Daily