Rains: The worst yet to come, says TMA
Dar es Salaam. Dar es Salaam residents should brace for a new wave of floods this week, according to the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA).
Rains started falling in the city from Saturday afternoon, and continued virtually nonstop throughout yesterday.
As usual, commuting around Dar es Salaam became difficult yesterday as some roads became impassable.
The Jangwani Section of the road was blocked for a good part of yesterday, forcing the operator of the Dar es Salaam Rapid Transit (Dart) to find an alternative way of ferrying travellers to and from the central business district.
Uda Rapid Transit (Udart) buses from Kivukoni and Gerezani had to go all the way to Karume Road and connect via Kawawa Road before returning to Morogoro Road at Magomeni.
TMA issued a weather alert yesterday, saying periods of heavy rains should be expected in the Coast, Dar es Salaam, Tanga, Unguja, Pemba, Mafia and in northern areas of Morogoro and Lindi regions.
“Periods of heavy winds at over 40 kilometers an hour are expected off the Indian Ocean in Coast, Tanga, Dar es Salaam, Lindi and Mtwara regions as well as Mafia, Unguja and Pemba islands,” the weather agency said in its alert yesterday.
According to TMA’s forecast, Dar es Salaam and neighbouring costal regions would receive rains, accompanied by thunder, for more than five days starting yesterday.
It states that regions across the northern side of the Indian Ocean shoreline, the Lake Victoria Zone and the north-eastern side of Tanzania’s Southern Highlands will receive rains throughout the month of April.
Some of the areas which are receiving rains presently are those that were affected by floods during the period between January and February this year.
Until February 2020, heavy rains had wreaked havoc in most parts of Tanzania, with floods killing about 40 persons even as they left thousands of people homeless.
The deaths were reported in Lindi, Mwanza, Morogoro and Manyara Regions. In addition, the officials said more than 15,000 people were left homeless after the floods swept away an estimated 1,750 houses.
That notwithstanding, the government is optimistic that the country will register goods yields this year, with the minister for Agriculture, Japhet Hasunga, advising farmers against being duped into selling their produce at throwaway prices to unscrupulous traders who would need the produce for export markets.
Speaking when he took part in Easter prayers at the Moravian Church at Vwawa, Mbozi District in Songwe Region yesterday, Mr Hasunga said that, with floods also pounding some of Tanzania’s neighboring countries, farmers should be vigilant against selling their produce to traders at throwaway prices.
“Tanzania has had enough rains, and our harvests will be good. I ask farmers to desist from the allure of selling their produce at throwaway prices. Let’s wait because we may get better prices in the near future. Let’s not sell for the sake of selling,” he said.
Apart from Tanzania, there have been reports of floods in some of the country’s neighbors in parts of Mozambique, Malawi and Zambia.
On the other hand, Tanzania’s East African neighboring countries of Kenya and Uganda - along with South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti and Sudan - have been battling infestation of desert locusts for the good part of the 2020 crops-growing season.
The locusts have been feeding on hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops and pastureland across the region, whereby about 20 million people were already rendered severely food-insecure.
Confirmation of hundreds of coronavirus cases across the region may have worsened the situation, observers say.
Additional reporting by Stephano Simbeye in Mbozi.
