Zanzibar beaches threatened
2006-10-23 09:40
Zanzibar - Zanzibar's famed pristine, palm-fringed beaches are threatened by the unchecked disposal of raw sewage, development and deforestation, said officials.
They said the situation was such that the Indian Ocean archipelago risked becoming one of the world's most environmentally endangered island chains, urging stepped up enforcement of and toughened ecological protection laws.
Ali Juma, director of the environment department in the Tanzanian territory's semi-autonomous government, said: "Environmental destruction on Zanzibar is going from bad to worse.
"We must now review our policies and strengthen laws to control the situation." He was speaking to reporters after the release last week of a United Nations report highlighting coastal pollution as a serious threat to the world's islands.
Officials said one of the main threats was the piping of untreated sewage from urban areas into the ocean, particularly around the capital, where only 60 of the estimated 200 tons of solid waste produced daily were accounted for.
Disposals 'threaten marine life'
Last week, officials from the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Dar es Salaam told Zanzibari parliamentarians that nearly 100% of raw liquid waste from Zanzibar town was being directed into the ocean.
They said that such disposals not only threatened marine life, but also damaged beaches that had become an economic lifeline for Zanzibar while the islands aimed to boost their reputation as an exotic world-class tourist destination.
The officials said in addition to waste dumping, Zanzibar's coastal areas were in danger from the loss of mangrove forests and other trees at the hands of illegal loggers and hotel and home development too close to beaches.
They said that regulations barring construction within 30 metres of beaches were routinely ignored and must be enforced and tightened if the islands were to avoid catastrophic damage.
A senior researcher with the environment department said: "The policies and laws have never been seriously implemented", lamenting that 1992 and 1996 legislation was inadequate to protect delicate eco-systems.
Healthy reefs 'essential'
He said that apart from infrequent nominal fines on locals for cutting down trees for firewood and rare cases of injunctions issued to stop beach-front construction, the government had not acted decisively to halt destruction.
On Thursday, the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) issued a new report saying that coastal pollution was threatening the recovery of coral reefs already damaged by rising sea temperatures blamed on climate change.
It said that healthy reefs were essential to maintaining the delicate environmental balance in the world's oceans and were estimated to bring in $30bn in revenue to local fishing and tourism industries.
Tourism on Zanzibar, renowned for its exotic history as a hub for the spice and slave trades, had grown to a $55m a year industry, representing 21% of the islands' gross domestic product.
The sector directly or indirectly employed nearly 45 000 of Zanzibar's some one million people and was hoped to surpass agriculture, currently 35% of gross domestic product, as its leading revenue earner by 2015.