Sometimes it seems that the global population is developing at a rate difficult to get a hold of. As governments around the world try to deal an exponential rise in human beings and aging city infrastructure – the environment inevitably starts to feel the knock-on effects.
Tanzania has seen an increase in climate-related threats over the last decade. Now, Tanzanian city dwellers – many who have migrated from rural to urban landscapes – are starting to experience these threats, that were previously only associated with rural living, affecting their day-to-day lives.
The country is currently bearing the heaviest burden of flooding, which threatens infrastructure and national healthcare. Tanzania also has severe issues with drought, a recurring problem in greater East Africa.
Experts have boiled the country’s climate issues down to a lack of planning: Poor infrastructure and a lack of weather resistance methods only shows that its major cities have been ill-prepared for the rapid rise in city dwellers.
“Rapid urbanisation is increasing our vulnerability to climate-related risks. Our cities have undergone massive spatial expansion with the majority of residents living in unplanned settlements,” Moses Msuya, director of the disaster management department in the Prime Minister’s Office, told Reuters.
More than half of the world’s population now live in cities, and the United Nations project that share will rise to 66% by 2050 – with close to 90% of the increase taking place in urban areas of Africa and Asia.
In terms of population, Africa itself has seen a rise of over 600 million people since 1980 – and it is expected to increase more rapidly in the future.
Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam, is currently home to over 4.5 million people and is known to be prone to flooding.
With these risks vastly affecting those poorer city residents that in-turn cannot access clean water and better sanitation, a new initiative – set up by Britain’s Department for International Development, the World Bank and the Tanzanian government – aims to find ways to cushion people from weather-related disasters.
The programme includes strategic actions, such as installing early warning systems set to boost Tanzania’s ability to respond to disasters and help people recover rapidly.
“No disaster is entirely natural,” said Edward Anderson, a disaster risk management specialist with the World Bank.
“Disaster itself is often a failure in development planning.”
As part of its strategy, the government will develop a “Resilience Academy”, in which the concept of resilience will be taught at university level to help younger generations tackle natural disasters and other threats, officials said.
Osiligi Lossai, local ward official for the Tandale neighbourhood of Dar es Salaam, said flood risks are more severe in crowded slum areas like his.
“My people have suffered a lot, and they keep incurring huge losses every single year,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
According to a recent World Bank report on greening Africa’s cities, protecting fast-degrading environments in growing cities like Dar es Salaam can make them more liveable, and help them cope with extreme weather.
The report also suggests that by restoring forest areas and rehabilitating river systems, it could alleviate urban flooding problems and make cities more please and productive places to live in.
