ITS BEGINNING TO FEEL A LOT LIKE AN ELECTION YEAR TANZANIA PLNAS TO CONTINUE WITH CONSTRUCTION OF SERENGETI HIGHWAY ARUSHA, Tanzania (Xinhua) -- Northern Tanzania’s authorities have vowed to continue with the plans of building a section of the controversial Serengeti highway at tarmac level. Our plans to build the road section from Mto wa Mbu-Loliondo at tarmac level are still there. We delayed to start the project because of lack of funds, Monduli District Commissioner Jowika Kasunga said alongside the Arusha Regional Road Board meeting. Tanzanian government pledged to build the road at tarmac level from Mto wa Mbu to Loliondo and leave 53 km of the road unpaved inside Serengeti National Park from Cranes Gate to Tabora B on the western side of the park. However, the decision received a number of criticisms from environmentalists across the world and some development partners asked Tanzania to shelve the plan and improve road networks on the southern part of Serengeti National Park. The move is meant to leave the World Heritage Site untouched as well as boost socio-economic development in the southern part of the park. The Germany-based Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) is eager to see Tanzania change its original plan on Serengeti highway through the World Heritage Site and instead stick to a safer alternative route to the south that could bypass the park. Dennis Rentsch of the Germany-based Frankfurt Zoological Society (FZS) said that the southern route around the Serengeti can preserve Tanzania’s greatest tourism asset and spare the devastation of a priceless World Heritage Site. Rentsch, project manager of the FZS’s Serengeti Ecosystem Management, said the southern route would make Serengeti continue to flourish as well as providing more socio-economic benefits for Tanzanian people as it would connect with paved highways to western, central, and eastern regions of the country. ~ OP ED Ah, election time. Same in every country. Politicians begin making all sorts of promises. As one of our Tanzanian team members said, they will likely only sit some machines and gravel there. Then stop, wait for elections and never finish it. We support better paved roads outside the park so communities can get to the nearest large town. But this does NOT mean that the road has to go THROUGH the park. We have had community meetings and every time we ask Do you need to get to the other side of the Serengeti? They always looked surprised and say No, we dont need anything from those areas, we just need to have a better way to get to large towns for markets, clinics etc. The government says it will only be gravel through the park. THIS MAKES NO DIFFERENCE! Any sort of all weather road with commercial traffic will stop the migration. 300 world scientists agree. The German government has offered to fund the rural roads. AND at the request of the Tanzanian government they are now doing feasibility studies of the Southern Route. The Southern Route around the park will help 5x as many people and will only take 1 HOUR LONGER to get from Arusha to the Lake Victoria region. ONE HOUR. Isnt saving a World Heritage site worth an extra hour? IF WE CANT SAVE THE SERENGETI, WHAT CAN WE SAVE? To Read the full Coastweek article click here: coastweek/3801-Tanzania-to-continue-with-construction-of-Serengeti-highway.htm To read more about Southern Route Click Here: savetheserengeti.org/issues/highway/southern-route/
Posted on: Thu, 08 Jan 2015 15:20:15 +0000
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