BY MBONEKO MUGAYA
Tourism stakeholders have called for the construction of a durable road through the Serengeti National Park in order to make a safari to, and through the world’s most mesmerising natural wildlife habitat, a truly memorable experience.
Commenting on the recent swamping of most parts of the Serengeti that was caused by unusually heavy rains for the season, the Coordinator of the Arusha based Wildlife and Environmental Care Initiative (WECI), Mr Kidon Mkuu, said arguments against a tarmac road through the National Park were outdated.
“I think such views are stuck in the thinking of more than 50 years ago when vehicles and therefore visitors to the Serengeti were few and the weather generally predictable. That is no longer the case now,” he explained.
The Chairman of the Tanzania Tour Guides Association (TTGA), Mr Loipuko Lembri, said roads through the Serengeti simply need to be passable all year round. However, he understood, he said, that wildlife conservation authorities in Tanzania preferred compacted bituminous layer (Tabaka gumu) roads rather than tarmac for fear of disorienting animals when forced to cross to the other side.
But industry stakeholders disagree. Many pointed to the Kruger National Park in South Africa that receives many visitors using only their saloon cars because roads are paved. On the other hand, visiting the Serengeti requires the use of off-road vehicles, which sometimes also find the going impossible as it happened recently when the Seronera River breached its banks, leaving many visitors stranded and others missing their flights back home.
Tourism enthusiast, Dr Abed Kamalamo of Mwanza, wondered why tours to Serengeti did not start from the lakeside city, which is just “a stone’s throw away.” It is roughly 110 kilometres from the Ndabaka Gate on the highway from Mwanza to Musoma, to Seronera in the heart of the Serengeti. In fact, more than 70 per cent of the Serengeti lies in Mara Region.
Mr Lembris said short as it is, that route is actually the Serengeti’s “Hell Run,” with tour drivers often complaining about suffering from back pain and general spine discomfort, apart from an equally disproportionate rate of vehicle breakdown.
Inner Serengeti National Park is roughly 14,763 square kilometres, which more than doubles to 30,000 km2 when community reserve areas are included. The adjacent Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), which includes World Heritage Site, Ngorongoro Crater, is roughly 8,292 square kilometres.
Thus, at more than 38,000 square kilometres, the Serengeti/NCA ecosystem, all left to wildlife, almost equals Switzerland, which is some 41,000 square kilometres and home to about 10 million people with one of the world’s highly advanced transportation infrastructure and systems.
In fact, development stakeholders want the entire road through the NCA and Serengeti from the Loduare Gate in Arusha’s Karatu district to Fort Ikoma in Mara Region’s Mugumu District, all tarmacked.
Rough as it is, the road has become popular with passenger buses and lorries to the Lake Zone as it is shorter than going through Singida and Nzega district in Tabora region.
