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By Mkinga Mkinga and Lucas Liganga
The government has said plans to construct a road through the Serengeti National Park (Senapa) are still on course despite emerging opposition from environmental lobbyists and conservationists.Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism Shamsa Mwangunga pointed out that the government is obliged to fulfil a campaign promise, made by President Jakaya Kikwete in 2005, that the fourth phase administration under CCM would complete construction of the $480 (Sh372 billion) Arusha-Musoma road.
The 480km road hit a snag in the past, following concern over a requirement that a section of it would pass through the park, famous for its spectacular annual migration of millions of wildlife into Kenya’s Maasai Mara game reserve.
The wildlife migration attracts hundreds of tourists every year, earning Tanzania and Kenya millions of shillings in foreign exchange.
Campaigners are warning that the opening up of Senapa to commercial traffic would be disastrous because the proposed 53km of road through the world-acclaimed wilderness would jeopardise the animal trek and dent the park’s ranking as one of the world’s leading tourist attraction.
Some of the lobbyists, including Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania, are now planning to hold meetings and raise petitions to persuade the government to go for an alternative route around the park and leave Serengeti untouched.
“The Wildlife Conservation Society of Tanzania (WCST) is soliciting support from Environmental NGOs to form a coalition which will conduct a campaign to avert the construction of a commercial highway through this critical part of the Serengeti,” said the society in an email communication.
“Every able person should join in condemning this destructive proposal which undermines hard gains and conservation achievements of sustaining this natural and cultural gift to humanity. There is no alternate to the Serengeti but there are many alternative areas for building an effective road system. We therefore call for common sense to prevail so as not to allow the construction of the road through the narrow northern part of the Serengeti National Park!! The road should be routed through the alternate southern end of the Park,” the statement added.
But in a quick government reaction to campaigns among local and international groups that got underway over two weeks ago to oppose the project, Ms Mwangunga dismissed growing fears that the road would interfere with the Serengeti eco-system.
In an interview with The Citizen this week, the minister said the main reason the road connecting Arusha-Musoma was considered was because of the need to satisfy public interests. She said the construction of the road wouldn’t disturb the popular annual wildlife migration as claimed by the campaigners.
Seeking to allay fears, she said the road, which would link Serengeti- Loliondo districts with the national grid of major roads, won’t cut cross Senapa but would be routed in a manner that won’t affect wildlife migration patterns.
Work on the project, according to Mr Deusdedit Kakoko, who is the regional manager for Tanzania Roads Agency (Tanroads), will begin early 2012. A feasibility study is currently underway, he said. Users currently loop more than 418km to the south to skirt the protected Serengeti.
“Those criticising the road construction know nothing about what we’ve planned...We’re all keen to preserve our natural resources…We’ll never compromise on that,” declared Ms Mwangunga.
She said an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) showed that the project was feasible before it was included in the government’s 10 years Transport Sector Improvement Program (TSIP).
According to the minister, only an unpaved 40-mile stretch of the two-lane tarmac road would pass through the national park. This, she insisted, won’t carry any threat to the annual movement of tens of thousands of wildebeest, between the Mara and Serengeti watering grounds, as suggested by the activists.
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