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Issue 00607 |
March 13 - 19, 2010 |
issn 0856 - 9135 |
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Local News |
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Longido constructs dam to fight drought By Staff Writer Minister for water and irrigation, Prof Mark Mwandosya has inaugurated a dam built in the wilderness of Longido District to provide water for the mostly Maasai population in the area. Unveiled this week the dam named 'Ingodini' with a capacity to hold 52 million liters was constructed at the cost of 606 million/- under the ongoing rural water development program. The giant water trough is located at Mundarara village, righ in the wild of Longido District. “There is need to review the current allocation of the ongoing water program meant for ten villages in respective districts,” stated Mr Mwandosya pointing out that in some areas like Longido villages were located very far apart making the programme difficult to execute. “Take the example of Hai District in Kilimanjaro where this project has been accomplished by close to 90 percent while I am told in Longido water has only managed to cover 40 percent of the intended coverage,” added the Minister. The Longido District Commissioner Mr James Ole Millya said the area required 68 million liters of water per day to meet the needs of its 96,172 population together with livestock. The area was among the mostly affected with drought which razed many parts of Arusha region between August 2009 and January 2010. Nearly 200,000 cattle were decimated by drought in Longido and the District is now working to prevent similar catastrophe in future by ensuring there is enough water in the precinct. “To accomplish that, Longido needs a total of 27 dams, so far we have ten which means the district requires 17 more,” he said adding that the newly built giant dam was far from being filled to capacity and at the moment is clogged with mud, sand and debris from ongoing rains. The windswept 7742 square kilometers of Longido is a semi arid area and previous water projects in the District were undertaken by the United States and Japan.
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