Digging out: When it rains, Dar’s lack of a master plan shows, Parliament heard. Dar’s easily damaged infrastructure needs to be considered as a disaster, says leader of the opposition Freeman Mbowe. Photo contributed: Abigail Snyder
Recent flooding in Dar es Salaam caused $5 million USD (10 billion TSH) in damage, no thanks to the city’s crumbing infrastructure, parliament heard over the weekend.
Flooding in Dar is having a greater impact because of our city’s fragile infrastructure, says leader of the opposition Freeman Mbowe.
“For over 30 years we have not had a master plan,” says Mbowe, noting that Dar’s last city master plan was in 1979 when it had population of 750,000.
“Now the population in the city has sharply risen to four and a half million. It is time we treated Dar es Salaam’s issue with utmost urgency and consider it as a disaster.”
The government was working on figuring out a way to come up with a new master plan, says Prime Minister Mzengo Pinda.
Speaking to Parliament on Saturday, Pinda says recent flooding in Dar caused 10 billion shillings worth of damage to Dar’s infrastructure.
But Pinda says residents also need to be responsible and move out of flood prone areas.
“Time and again the government has issued warnings to valley dwellers to vacate, but they tend not to heed such advice.”
