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| WWF representative Ebrania |
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| mbweleli village executive officer (VEO) Christina Mathaya |
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| Mbweleli village chairperson makes a point during the village assembly to pass VLUP proposal |
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Mbweleli village land use management committees (VLUMC) member, Ally Magomba during the village assembly,
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Mkutano mkuu wa kijiji cha Mbweleli unaendeleo(Village Assembly in progress)
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Mkazi mmoja wa Kijiji cha Migoli Kata Migoli tarafa ya Ismani, Wilaya ya Iringa mkoani Iringa ambaye hakufahamika jina lake mara moja akitoka kuchota maji katika Bwawa la Mtera kwenye mapipa kwa kutumia punda jana. Mkazi huyo hufanya biashara ya kuuza maji ambapo pipa moja la maji anauza kwa shilingi elfu 2,000 kwa wananchi wanaofanya shughuli ya kufyatua matofali na matumizi ya nyumbani kando kando ya bwawa bila kuzingatia uharibifu wa mazingira. (Picha na Friday Simbaya)
One resident of the Migoli village of Migoli Ward, Division Ismani, Iringa district in Iringa region whose name couldn't be identified at once comes from fetching water at Mtera Dam in barrels using donkey yesterday. The resident makes a business of selling water where one barrel of water sells for 2,000 shillings for citizens who make bricks along the dam without realizing environmental degradation and the same water is sold residents for domestic purposes. (Photo by Friday Simbaya)
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The Energy and Minerals Minister Prof. Sospeter Muhongo told the National Assembly in the middle of this month (May) that the government is capable of funding the third phase (phase III) of the Rural Energy Agency (REA) plan despite the decision made by the US government through the millennium challenge corporation (MCC) program, but there some villages like Mbweleli in Iringa District, Iringa region which has never electrified for more 30 years now, the guardian on Sunday can reveal.
The Mbweleli residents at Migoli Ward of Ismani Division in Iringa rural said that they live near Mtera Hydro Electrical power station but far away from power service, although most the residents of village participated in the erecting of electricity poles which passes through their village going to next village.
They said the neighbouring village called Makatapola has electricity and people were enjoying the service, hence improved livelihoods.
Ally Magomba and Solomon Mpangala told the Guardian yesterday that they lived in the village for many years and have even participated in digging holes for erecting electricity poles but it’s unfortunately that they don’t have power at their village.
“We are just few kilometers away from Mtera hydro-power station and power line is crossing but our village has not been considered in REA plans. We need our village to be electrified like others so that we can also improve our livelihoods because without power there is no development,” they said.
They said that in order the forests to be conserved, the village should have electricity to avoid cutting of forest trees for drying fish but if they have electricity they can use refrigerators to store their fish for export in urban centers.
Rosemary, not a real name, told the Guardian on Sunday that most of time politicians come to ask for votes during election period and they come with a lot promises including bring power through REA but nothing has been done. They just give a lip service and the election is over they never come back.
“We need power and we also need clean and safe drinking water for our homes because we are using contaminated water from Mtera Dam,” she lamented.
Mbweleli village is one the villages along Mtera Dam were illegal fishing is practiced by using unauthorized fish nets (Makokolo), without the knowledge of the Beach management unit (BMU).
Mbweleli Village has total residents of 1,218, including 266 households (kaya) and 350 workforces (nguvukazi), according the village executive officer (VEO), Christina Mathayo.
She said that village has only one primary school which carters for other two villages of Makatapola and Kinyali.
However, World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature through its Ruaha Water Program (RWP) in collaboration with Iringa District Council is supporting the village land use (VLUP) program in two pilot villages of Makatapola and Mbweleli in Migoli Ward of Ismani Division in Iringa District Council, Iringa Region.
The Iringa District Facilitating team, WWF and the two village councils of Makatapola and Mbweleli has formed their village land use management committees (VLUMC), through which all land issues will be solved.
On his part, district village/town planning officer, Zahoro Mwalongo said that there are a total of 133 villages in the district council but only 67 villages are implementing village land use plan, and urged that there a need to implement VLUP every village so that reduction conflicts related land.
Mwalongo added that in order to facilitate the implementation of village land use plan, a lot villages should be demarcated and issued with village certificates.
The district facilitating team was comprised with the district village/town planning officer, Zahor Mwalongo, district forest officer, Joachim Mshana and Geoffrey Mwanga a Cartographer who conducted a baseline survey in collaboration with village governments and identified challenges faced by two villages.
The challenges include the shortage of clean and safe water for domestic use, environmental destruction, and lack of village land use, lack of knowledge of the village land act of 1999, water, environment, and forestry and boundary disputes between the villages.
The other challenge most of the households have no toilets but they do it in bushes (open defecation), illegal fishing, nomadic and slash and burn farming, lack of a primary school and clinic.
Open defecation refers to the practice whereby people go out in fields, bushes, forests, open bodies of water, or other open spaces rather than using the toilet to defecate. The practice is rampant in two villages defecate in the open and excrete close into the environment each day.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said Participatory Land Use Planning (PLUP) is a tool for community empowerment because it is a means of securing rights and access to land.
WWF-Ruaha Water Program (RWP) Community Development Officer (CDO), Martha Sanga said that local communities in Tanzania, as in many other parts of sub-Saharan Africa, need means of securing rights and access to land and resources and of resolving conflicts over resource use.
She said that by using participatory land use planning; it is possible to balance the need to secure local tenure with the need to maintain flexibility and mobility across larger areas according to traditional adaptive management practices in semi-arid environments.
She said the PLUP is a tool for community empowerment which will be use to support a diverse range of pastoralists, agro-pastoralists and hunter-gatherers, all of whom face fundamental threats from external appropriation of, or encroachment on, lands and natural resources.
The Great Ruaha River (GRR) is also now the focus for the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT). The SAGCOT is an inclusive, multi-stakeholder partnership (MSP) to rapidly develop the region’s agricultural potential.
SAGCOT was initiated at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Africa summit 2010 with the support of founding partners including farmers, agribusiness, the Government of Tanzania and companies from across the private sector.
SAGCOT’s objective is to foster inclusive, commercially successful agribusinesses that will benefit the region’s small-scale farmers, and in so doing, improve food security, reduce rural poverty and ensure environmental sustainability.
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