Kitaifa
Tanzania seeks Unesco permission to upgrade roads in Serengeti
Dar es Salaam. Tanzania says it will ask for permission from Unesco requesting a permission to upgrade roads in the Serengeti National Park.
This follows El Nino rains, which badly affected roads in the park, chief government spokesperson Mobhare Matinyi told reporters in Dodoma on Sunday.
Serengeti National Park is a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Torrential rains, which started last October, caused floods which rendered most roads impassable in the park, but the situation has been addressed for now.
Mr Matinyi said effects of the rains prompted the government to consider looking for a long-term solution which will not affect conservation and wildlife management.
Serengeti is ranked the third largest national park in Tanzania, but accounts for the largest share of tourists in the country, Mr Matinyi said.
He said the government was now considering to upgrade four main roads with a “hard surface” to ensure passage of both tourists and local transporters.
“Tanzania National Parks (Tanapa) in collaboration with the government is preparing a proposal to Unesco on putting hard surface on the Serengeti roads,” he said, adding that the hard surface will target four main roads which are mostly used by the visitors and cargo and passenger transportation.
He said the four roads which connect the regions of Arusha, Simiyu, Manyara, Mara, and Shinyanga through the reserve, contain 291 kilometres that are equivalent to nine percent of the 3,176 road networks in the Serengeti. “Our target is to get hard surface on these roads,” he stressed, adding that such surface would be tarmac or concrete.
“For now, it’s not yet decided whether the hard surface will involve tarmac or other type,” Mr Matinyi said, citing an example of road in Ngorongoro that is planned for hard surface without using tarmac.
Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Conservation Area are among Tanzanian seven areas listed on the Unesco World Heritage Sites. Others include Ruins of Kilwa Kisiwani and Ruins of Songo Mnara, Selous Game Reserve, Kilimanjaro National Park, Stone Town of Zanzibar, and Kondoa Rock-Art Sites. Tanzania received 1.4 million visitors between July 2023 and February 2024, compared to the target of 1.3 million tourists in the current financial year, Mr Matinyi said.
Known for the annual wildebeest migration, in which 1.5 million of them cross River Mara, Serengeti is also home for all big five animals – lion, rhino, leopard, buffalo and elephant.
In 2010, the government proposed to develop a 480km commercial highway linking Lake Victoria with eastern Tanzania that would cut across Serengeti National Park.
The proposal faced opposition from environmentalists who argued that the road was unfit for wildlife management.