Environmental and Conservation Report By Leo Odera Omolo

REPORTS emerging from the Tanzanian capital, Dar Es Salaam, say environmentalists and conservationists are up in arms against the construction of the 480 kilometer highway across the world famous wildlife sanctuary, the Serengeti National Game Park.

The road, which is to be tarmacked at an estimated cost of USD 480 million, is to link the country’s Northern Town of Arusha in Tanzania and the famous Maasai Game Reserve in Kenya.

The announcement about this multimillion dollar road network project was announced last week by the Regional Commissioner for Arusha, Isidori Shirima. This announcement now bring to an end a three – year strong protest by the green activists, including the Tanzania National Parks Authority {TANAPA}, they termed “interference with the wildebeest annual migration route. which in recent years has gained world-wide instant fame.

According to the regional commissioner, the new highway will in certain season of the year see the wildebeest herds march across in tens of thousands attracting more tourists into the country.

Of the project total cost, USD 260 million will cover the Arusha-Serengeti section and USD million the Serengeti-Musoma segment.

Deusdedit Kakoko,the Arusha based regional manager of the Tanzania Road Agency said the construction work for the project will commence in 2012 while feasibility studies are to be completed by the end of this year. ”We will mobilize resources and float tenders for consultants in January,”said Kakoko.

When asked why they had accepted the routing they were once vehemently opposed to, the officials were hesitant to speak.”This issue is no longer in our corridors.”The ball is now in the court of Tanaroads,” Tanapa’s public relations manager Pascal Shelutete said on phone. Before hanging up.

An environmentalist law lecturer Makamura University College in Arusha Elizabeth Laltalka said the project would be in line with sustainable development.

“Serengeti will remain wild and with the new road, Tanzanians will no longer have to travel through border into Kenya,” said Laltalka.

Serengeti National Game Park, which shares anecosyst6em with the Kenya’s famous Maasai Mara Game Reserve hosts the spectacular annual wildebeest migration.

In 2006, a jury of experts declared the annual wildebeest migration across the Mara River from Tanzania into Kenya one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World.

Ends

leooderaomolo@yahoo.com