Msimbazi River valley: An area unfit for human settlement

The NEMC is the leading technical advisory, co-ordinating and regulatory agency responsible for the protection of the environmental and sustainable use of the natural resources in Tanzania. It is responsible for consultation, collaboration and partnership arrangements with other entities concerned with environmental matters and the public at large, and for facilitating and promoting such measures as necessary to help achieve an important quality of lives for Tanzanians.

It will be recalled that at least 23 people have been killed in the worst floods to hit the Tanzanian capital.

Businesses were forced to close and thousands were left homeless as the city became inundated with flood water.

The last time Dar es Salaam recorded such heavy rains was in 1954.

Government leaders had now and then urged those living in affected areas to leave their homes because these low lying areas have been recurring for years, the lasting solution is to vacate the flood prone areas.   

 It is high time that responsible authorities including city planners, mayors and councilors stopped issuing permits for developers to erect structures in such areas.  

In the same vein, the National Environment Management Council (NEMC) has announced its intention to demolish 17,000 houses built within the Msimbazi River valley in Dar es Salaam.

And it has been reported that demolition exercise is expected to continue for two weeks.   

 The  houses to be affected by the exercise are those built in flood-prone areas along the notorious Msimbazi river valley, particularly those located within 60 meters of the river bank as per the Environmental Management Act of 2004.

The Msimbazi River valley  is an area unfit for human settlement especially during rainy seasons, because it poses serious threats to both human life and environmental well-being.

We now  once again call upon  people currently  living in or around the valley to vacate the area immediately before stern measures are taken against them.

The valley residents have been told again and again to move out by the government, which even offered them a plot in the city’s Mabwepande area, but most of them have chosen to remain anchored in the valley.

We wonder why these people still want to live here... the government spends a lot of money to assist them in case of emergency, and they are supposed to move away willingly.

Last year the government, through NEMC, demolished over 700 houses in the Msimbazi river valley, before the exercise was suspended in three wards of Kinondoni District by the Land Division of the High Court.

The court allowed the government to continue with the operation in other areas such as Mpiji, Kizinga and Mlalakuwa valleys in the city.

According to NEMC, the demolition exercise was aimed at improving the city’s environment and outlook, and was to be implemented in phases.

NEMC officials attributed the environment degradation to overpopulation and high demand of people for land resources in urban areas.