By ADAM IHUCHA
A number of multinational companies have placed bids,
competing for the planned multi-million-dollar soda Ash plant along the
fragile Ramsar site of Lake Natron in
northern Tanzania.
Fresh details from National Development Corporation
(NDC) show that so far six international firms had lodged their bids, seeking to
construct nearly $500 million factory to exploit 1,000,000 metric tones of soda
ash per annum.
Lake Natron
and Engaruka areas, nearly 220km Western Arusha have reserve of 4.7 billion cubic liters of soda ash combined at the
moment and experts say the deposits keep multiplying at1.9 billion cubic litres
per annum.
Presenting the report at Longido District in Arusha
recently, the NDC Director General, Gideon Nassari said the Lake Natron wetland
management plan and environmental assessment study would be ready this year to
pave way for the plant.
It is anticipated that the studies would also propose
the environmental friendly technology to be used to extract and process the
soda ash material ready for export.
Soda ash,
known chemically as sodium carbonate, is used virtually everywhere and has been
a key raw material for glass, chemicals, soaps and detergents production for
thousands of years.
“This time, NDC would do what it takes to ensure that
the project is realized as planned so that the area and the nation benefit from
the soda ash reserve at Lake Natron and Engaruka ruins” Mr Nassari said in
presentation.
NDC presentation shows that the proposed plant would
be earning the country $300 million a year and creates 500 direct
employment opportunities.
Sources privy to the deal say that the state would
hold a 46 percent shares through the NDC, once they reach a consensus with any
investor in ongoing negotiations.
For six
years, the project was in quagmire due to green activists concern that a
prospective factory near Lake Natron would devastate the greatest flamingo breeding
site and habitat in East Africa.
Green activists have been making a campaign across
the globe to stop the Tanzania’s plan that threats the Eastern African only remain
significant breeding site for the tantalizing Lesser Flamingos.
They warn that the proposed plant could wipe out the
breeding ground of this near threatened species - thus putting at risk 75 per
cent of the global Lesser Flamingo population.
Mike Ole Mokoro, a leading activist against the
project, has changed his mind and now supports the state idea of establishing a
Soda Ash factory.
“Now I understand that the project would not harm
flamingos breeding site because it would be built nearly 50 km away from Lake
Natron” Mr Mokoro said.
President Jakaya Kikwete has been pushing for the
establishment of a factory, arguing the plant would be a boost to the economy.
“Experience elsewhere shows that the excavation can be done without any harm to the eco-system” he said, ruling out green activists’ argument that the plant will wipe out the flamingo population.
“Experience elsewhere shows that the excavation can be done without any harm to the eco-system” he said, ruling out green activists’ argument that the plant will wipe out the flamingo population.
“What matters is the application of environmental
friendly technology to avoid disrupting flamingos breeding sites. Sometimes I
doubt whether those who are opposing the plant are really patriotic, because it
seems as if they are agents of some people we don’t know!” he said.
“We can’t keep on lamenting our country being poor amid untapped mineral deposits. After all we are not going to be the first to harvest soda ash, our northern neighbor Kenya, are doing the same on the other side of the lake,” he said.
“We can’t keep on lamenting our country being poor amid untapped mineral deposits. After all we are not going to be the first to harvest soda ash, our northern neighbor Kenya, are doing the same on the other side of the lake,” he said.
The Lesser Flamingo
is considered to be the most numerous out of all six flamingo species. They are
indigenous to East Africa, and their Habitat in Lake Natron is the only
breeding ground suitable for their needs, because of its salinity.
This year thousands of lesser flamingos had flocked
to Lake Natron to begin nesting.
Early reports suggest that this could become the most
significant breeding event since 2007.
The gathering is one of nature's "fantastic
spectacles", said Sarah Ward, a PhD research student of the University of
Southampton.
Lake Natron is
also suitable for them because the place is isolated and intact from
human development because the Lake Natron has been a Ramsar site since 2001.
The convention on
wetlands signed in Ramsar Iran way back in 1971, is an intergovernmental treaty
of international co-operation for the conservation and sustainable use of
wetlands and their resources.
Available data
indicates that all the estimated 1.5 to 2.5 million Lesser Flamingos currently
alive in East Africa from Djibouti down through Tanzania to Malawi were
hatched at Lake Natron.
0 comments:
Post a Comment