THE National Environment Management Council (NEMC) has slapped a 10m/- fine to two investors in Kilolo District for degrading the environment of the Great Ruaha River and conducting illegal business near the river.
A NEMC legal officer, Benard Kongola
said Tommy Diary investors was found to have planted maize and bananas
within 60 metres of the river bank and Ndoto dairy farm investor was
charged with conducting business without a Environmental Impact
Assessment certificate from the council.
The Great Ruaha River is a river in
south-central Tanzania that flows through the Usangu wetlands and the
Ruaha National Park east into the Rufiji River. Its basin catchment area
is 83,970 square kilometres (32,421 sq mi) The Great Ruaha is about 475
km (300 mi.) long, its tributary basin has a catchment area of 68,000
km².
It supplies 22 per cent of the total
flow of the Rufiji catchment system. Kongola said the two investors have
been given two weeks from April 24 to pay up the fine as otherwise they
would face legal measures.
The Tommy Dairy investors was also
instructed to uproot banana plants he had planted to stop harmful
effects on the water source because cultivation of banana plants was not
advised near water sources.
Kongola is a legal expert in a Task
Force formed by the Vice President, Samia Suluhu Hassan to salvage the
ecology of the Great Ruaha River which is facing acute environmental
degradation. He issued the order and slapped the fine to investors when
the task force visited the farms recently.
The government has warned wealthy and
politically well-connected individuals against diverting water from the
Great Ruaha River, the lifeline of more than six million people.
The Minister of State in the Office of
the Vice President (Union and Environment) January Makamba, told the
National Assembly in Dodoma that the malpractice has greatly affected
the river’s water flow. "The government will take punitive measures to
individuals found diverting water from the river for irrigating their
farms regardless of their status or position," he said.
Mr Makamba said that because of
environmental degradation, there is lack of water for the animals and
plants in the Ruaha National Park, which minimises attraction and
tourism revenues. Various attempts have so far been made including
evacuation of farmers and pastoralists from the basin's sources of water
but were unsuccessful.
The minister said the authorities had created the national taskforce to rescue the basin under the Environment Act of 2004.
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