After the collapse of socialism policy in the word, Tanzania had no other option than to accept the free market policy from the western countries in 1980s, the policy which has dominated the universe.
With that policy the politicians have been encouraging investors from various parts of the world to invest in different sectors such as mining, Tourism, Agriculture, Transport, and Communication. They tell people that the system could change the economy but worse enough the gap between the rich and poor is expanding with the ‘Jet speed’, unemployment to the peasant sons and daughters as well as environmental conservation in all aspects like land,air,and water.
I don’t understand what is going on in the government, the degradation is taking place in different places and information is given to the government but no response or actions taken against the greed investors, the good example is Temeke municipal council which had received the information from YVK Youth Vision of Kigamboni(YVK) staff about some investors polluting the coastal areas in kigamboni but no actions taken.’ We have tried to inform the municipal council about this situation but we don’t see any action from the government ‘’, YVK staff informed.
In that case I decided to have a field visit to Mjimwema area where I grieved to see one area with the mangrove trees been fenced by one investor, one YVK staff said it is Mohamed enterprises owns the area, this amazed me for no one is allowed to own the mangrove forest [Fishery act of 1973], also the fence gave me some doughty that the forest would be cleared out during the construction process.
Another ‘huge’ degradation has done by the Kempisk hotel. they have destroyed mangrove forest for the ‘poor idea’ of getting the sea view, with ‘uncivilized’ idea they have put the barrier against the ocean in a small gulf in mjimwema.They have done that by prioritizing their income without considering how the could affect fish breeding areas and other species in the fishery industry which provide about 10% of the GDP.
Is that investment without caring our environmet, human health and future generations? We should turn back to where we had fallen and ‘repent’ by reveiwing our contracts and having environmental assessment impact before the project, and this is not enough by filing the documents but monitoring the investments of the so called investors whether they are considering the environment or not during the contraction process.
Written by:
Peter John – YET 2011
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