Learning from Same villagers

In yesteryears the spirit of self-reliance was the hallmark of development activities in Tanzania, spearheaded mainly in rural areas to put in place social services infrastructure.

Under it villagers organised for communal work, such as building classrooms, health facilities, roads and water among others.

The government would then give them funds to purchase building materials and pay technicians such as carpenters, masons and fundis. The funds would also be used to buy iron sheets and cement for the buildings.

However, as days went by, the spirit fizzled out both in rural and urban areas with the focus now being on finding donors, mainly from outside the country to build the infrastructure for us.

People no longer volunteer to perform activities that would be beneficial to their communities, but instead wait for the government to do everything, despite knowing that this is impossible.

However, we are encouraged to note that a few among us still practice self-reliance, albeit in a small way. We refer to residents of Same District in Kilimanjaro region who, in collaboration with the Tanzania Forest Services (TFS) agency, have formed 27 village committees in 11 wards to enhance a stone’s throw from the village.

A group of journalists who were on a tour of the forest reserve recently were told that the committees have already increased the number of members of the public participating in conservation activities around the Chome Forest Reserve.

They were further told that through vigilant groups formed by the village, it has been possible to remove more than 2000 small-scale miners who were conducting their activities around the reserve.

The action of the villagers is indeed commendable and worth emulating. For, although some people might think that what they have done is small, they are showing the way for other Tanzanians living near forest reserves or other such crucial ecological sites.

Quite often people see others engaging in activities that damage the environment, such as setting ablaze forests or grasslands apparently for farming or grazing livestock, but do not act to stop them.

They could at least report them to the powers that be or educate them that doing such things is bad for the environment and the country as a whole. In that way they would be fulfilling their responsibility as good citizens of Tanzania.

We must remember that the responsibility of conserving our environment lies first and foremost with Tanzanians. Any help from outside can only complement our efforts. While we agree that pressure to survive is behind a lot of the activities damaging the environment, it is also true that the alternatives are already with us, but not enough is done to promote them in our communities.

Ensuring order in harvesting forests for firewood, while at the same time promoting tree planting is one such simple conservation tool.

People must respect forests for the crucial role they play in sustaining life, enabling rivers to flow throughout the year, for agricultural activities and generation of power.
Let us all take a leaf from Same villagers.