Overcoming Tanzania's mineral resource challenge

According to a report published last year titled: Tanzania Quest for Sustainable Utilization of oil and Gas Resources by a friend of mine John Jingu, lecturer, department of political science and public administration and his fellow researcher Ian Shanghvi, the Tanzania economy as a whole is experiencing economic growth of more that 6 per cent each year and at the same time, the number of people living in cities is set to rise from current 15 million to 45 million by 2050 with much of that rise happening in cities of Dar es salaam, Mbeya, Kigoma, Arusha, Mwanza and Dodoma.Their argument is that the Tanzanian government, business and civil society should embrace a new model of cross-sector,public-private, transnational partnership in management of country’s vast mineral wealth that has not benefitted the common Tanzanian as has been the case in other African countries. According to authors, the government needs to focus on what is happening within mineral industry and should stop being preoccupied with their day-to-day operations only but also focus on specific interests that will benefit the country. When I spoke to John Jingu a fortnight ago,he was clear that Tanzania can meet the challenges presented by increasing mineral resource stress within a stipulated timeframe and overall, decades of bad decisions require long-term solutions.John Jingu was clear in conversation that the country whose success depends on its ability to plan for the future,the value of implementing those solutions not tomorrow, but today is matter of life and death.

Tanzania's dynamic economic growth is generating thousands of jobs, transforming the country’s economy and steadily lifting huge number of communities out of poverty. As the population numbers are rising, so are aspirations of Tanzanians. A growing global middle-class means people are striving for a better quality of life, with greater access to goods and services hence the recent report ranking the country as the best investment destination with immense growth potential in retail business.Economic success is,of course, something Tanzanians should celebrate although it brings its own challenges for example,in terms of the increasing pressure it can put on natural resources and for the case of United Republic of Tanzania the management and proper utilization of mineral wealth like gas and oil is important.Recently,I highlighted challenges facing water sustainability in Tanzania.Also,in the past I've focused how infrastructure deficit can be managed to drive development in Tanzania.For Tanzania to realize its goals of being the biggest economy in East Africa, water sustainability is a must as it is required to extract energy and generate power and energy is required to treat and transport water.Pressure on those key resources is building and there has been scientific reports that Mount Kilimanjaro glaciers are vanishing at a very fast rate and face extinction in a decade of so.

Various studies have shown that water shortages will hamper the reliable production of food and energy across the East African region where Tanzania accounts for more than 52% of total land mass. But there are steps Tanzania can take to tackle this. For one thing, the country can embrace more innovative urban planning. As Tanzania's economy grow so do its cities with Dar es Salaam easily being the most populated city in East Africa with an estimated population of 5.8million people. In South Tanzanian city of Mbeya, for example, the urban population has almost doubled in the past two decades according to country’s population figures. The fact that cities with high population density are more energy efficient than those which sprawl means smarter urban development can help reduce the burden on the country energy system. Better designed cities like the one being lined up outside Arusha expected to be the most modern city in Tanzania with more efficient, integrated transport systems using cleaner fuels is a step in the right direction. Tanzania’s natural gas has huge potential as a means of diversifying, and therefore securing, the country's energy future at a time of rocketing demand. Liquefied natural gas makes it increasingly easy to transport natural gas from expanding supply hubs like Mozambique and Tanzania to demand centres across East African region like Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and DR Congo. Importantly, embracing cleaner-burning natural gas will also lower carbon emissions and improve air quality across the country of 49 million people and the greater East African region.