TMA Director General, Dr Agnes Kijazi.
“A special team consisting of ministry officials from various state
agencies, including the disaster management and health sectors, have
been formed to coordinate the efforts to mitigate the expected damage
the rains will cause”, according to the Coordinator for Disaster
Management in the Prime Minister’s Office Nicodemus Butondo.
The move follows the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) warnings
it had issued to the Tanzanians to remain alert over the looming El
Nino threat, saying the rains may continue until April, this year.
“In other regions especially in the eastern and southern zone, the
rains may continue until April, this year, according to the TMA Director
General, Dr Agnes Kijazi.
In 1997, El Nino rains, which were described by the UN Food and
Agriculture Organisation as the biggest on record in this region caught
many governments off-guard and induced floods that left dozens of people
dead and rendered thousands homeless.
Nicodemus Butondo told the Guardian in an exclusive interview that
the government was well prepared with all the necessary resources to
mitigate the expected damage of the El Nino rains will cause.
He said the warehouses in every zone countrywide were full of
relief basic supplies that might be in need whenever the floods occur.
He mentioned some of them as blankets, food, school uniforms, exercise
books, home appliances and mattresses.
“We have all the equipment that people might need during
disasters…our stores also have school materials for children”, he said.
He said in collaboration with stakeholders they have prepared all the rescue equipment for both marine and ground.
According to him, the stakeholders are the Surface and Marine
Transport Regulatory Authority (Sumatra), National Service and Tanzania
Red Cross Society (TRCS).
He said the National Service has already put in place temporary steel bridges and more had been ordered.
Butondo noted that focal persons have been trained and stationed at
various places across the country. He said similar trainings were
conducted by officials from the municipal levels.
He said village and ward disaster management committees were well
organized. He called on people residing at low lands and flood-prone
areas to move before the rains.
The Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) warned of the possibility
of El Nino rains which were expected between September and December last
year. The rain season for Dar es Salaam and Coast Regions is expected
to begin in March this year.
TMA Director General Dr Agnes Kijazi said the El Nino was due to an
increase in ocean temperature in the tropical zone of the Pacific
Ocean.
According to TMAthis could be the biggest El Nino on record
experienced in East Africa since 1997. It said the rains would unleash
‘fury and destruction’ of magnitude much like occurred in 1997.
TMA has reiterated the need for relevant authorities to ensure strategic mitigation plans against the negative impacts expected
The rains, which pounded several East African countries including
Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and Uganda, rendered a record 10
million people requiring emergency food aid.
Dr Kijazi warned that a repeat of the scenario was likely this year
“as temperatures over the Pacific Ocean have already risen by 2 degrees
centigrade”.
The 1997/98 El Nino rains, which began falling in November 1997 and
lasted through March 1998, devastated most parts of Mara, Arusha,
Kilimanjaro, Tanga and Shinyanga regions.
“In the country’s central and southern parts, where cereal crops of
the 1998 main season were at the developing stage, crop losses to
floods in low-lying areas of Iringa and Mbeya regions may be significant
this time around,” warned Dr Kijazi.
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