Simba and Mtibwa must not rest till it's over

Tanzania’s representatives in the African Champions League, Simba and Mtibwa Sugar Football Clubs, stormed through the first round of the competition.

While Simba sailed through with an 8-1 goals aggregate against Mbabane Swallows of eSwatini (formerly Swaziland), Mtibwa Sugar completed the first round with 5-0 goals aggregate against the Seychelles side, Northern Dynamo.

Simba will now face Zambia’s Nkana Red Devils, while Mtibwa Sugar will battle it out with Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA) of Uganda. The two Tanzanian teams will start their qualifications in the Groups’ stage away on December 15.

The results of the two teams were received positively by soccer fans in Tanzania. However, their players and officials should not be lulled into complacency by the exciting results; they still face an uphill task ahead, with ‘new’ opponents.

The Kitwe-based Nkana Red Devils are among Zambia’s most popular teams, having won Zambian league titles 12 times – and 43 trophies in all. In 1990, the Devils were runners-up in the African Cup of Champions – the only Zambian team to have reached the finals.

KCCA also has a good soccer record in the African Continental championships, having qualified for the competition several times.

In any case, it is high time that the Simba and Mtibwa Sugar leaders prepared their squads intensively ahead of the two matches a week hence. Players should be encouraged to sweat it out on the training pitch, and correctly tune themselves into a winning mood ahead of the matches as a matter of course.

Players and their coaches must constantly remember that they have just started on the road to seek victory -- in like manner as their opponents who also target sweet victory the competition.

IMPROVE WASTE MANAGEMENT

Urban solid waste management is a serious environmental challenge in Tanzania.It is estimated that Dar es Salaam city, for example, generates 4,600 tonnes of solid waste daily.

Consequently, environmentalists urge the country to resort to advanced technologies to transform solid waste into wealth.

The UN regional environment sub-programme affirms that tapping into the potential of state-of-the-art solid waste management has great opportunities for Tanzania and Africa.

That was revealed at a recent stakeholdersmeeting in Dar es Salaam on preparing a National Waste Management Strategy to reduce its adverse impacts and increase resource recovery from waste.

The UN insists that solid waste can help in operating small processing factories. It can also be used as a source of energy – both ventures being attractive to prospective investors.

In any case, waste recycling would also create jobs.

Burying waste– or simply throwing it all over the place, and even burning it–are no longer effective waste-disposal options in rapidly-growing population settings.

The choking smell and toxic smoke wafting from burning waste dumps can be dangerous for the living, including humans.

We all must take proper solid waste management seriously in the best interests of all living things and the environment.