CLIMATE CHANGE ON MT. KILIMANJARO

Climate change is a situation whereby there is a continuous temperature increase in the world threatening the lives of living organism. “This means that a change of climate which is attributed directly or indirectly to human activity that alters the composition of the global atmosphere and which is in addition to natural climate variability observed over comparable time periods” http://www.google.co.uk

From 1980s the world has experienced terrible temperature increase where a number of initiatives such as conservation have been into place to curb the situation. So far little has been achieved. Mwalimu Julius K. Nyerere the former Tanzania President once said, “if we are not careful our actions will lead us to death”.

As I said earlier on climate change has affected the world mostly in the south of Sahara where most African countries are found. Tanzania being part of Sub Saharan Africa has experienced the change.

Mount Kilimanjaro is the highest mountain in Africa which is heavily affected by the changes. We should remember that the mountain is the source of water in Kilimanjaro region.

The climatic changes fall into two major impacts:
On environment – In the past the Mount Kilimanjaro was covered with snow making the only permanent snow in Africa. In recent years the snow has been smelting continuously making the beautiful scenery of the mountain to disappear.

In a short run the rivers with sources from the Mount Kilimanjaro were full but now most of them running dry threatening marine organisms.

More so, most of the animals leaving on the foot of the Mount Kilimanjaro have either died or gone away to look for food for their survival.

On locals - Climate change on the Mount Kilimanjaro has very great impact to the people leaving in Kilimanjaro and other parts of Tanzania. In the past many people used to cultivate from the river banks which flow water from the mountain now can not do it any more. Most of the people have lost their jobs. “I used to cultivate maize, banana and vegetables on the river banks but now it is impossible”, said Mgosi wa Ukware.

The climatic changes on the Kilimanjaro Mountain have caused a serious problem on power supply in the country. 80% of water in Nyumba ya Mungu dam comes from the top of the Kilimanjaro Mountain hence, the shortage of water from the mountain means less production of power in the country.

As, I said earlier on despite heavy negative impact caused by the climate change, the government of Tanzania is doing a lot to make sure that the climate is improving.