Overview of Mto wa Mbu and Adjacent Areas

1. Overview of Mto wa Mbu and Adjacent Areas Claude G. Mung’ong’o University of Dar es Salaam Tanzania

2. Overview Mto wa Mbu town is located in the eastern tip of Lake Manyara area in Monduli District. Monduli District is one of the six districts of Arusha Region in northern Tanzania. The district covers a total of 15,775 sq km and it is bordered by Arumeru District in the east, the Gregory Rift Wall and Ngorongoro District in the west and northwest, and Lake Manyara Region in the south and southwest. In the north Monduli District borders the district of Longido and the country of Kenya.

3. Overview (contd) The Lake Manyara area is a frontier zone reflecting a social dynamism which has existed in this part of East Africa for several centuries. Maasai pastoralists have inhabited the plains to the east of Lake Manyara since at least the 18th century. More recently, the Barabaig pastoralists have migrated into the area from the south due to increasing marginalization and land alienation.

4. Physical Features Rainfall is bimodal, with very high coefficients of variation. Soils vary from fertile highly erodible volcanic material, to a variety of moderate to low fertility sedimentary and basement soils. Vegetation ranges from open, bushed and wooded grasslands on the plains to wooded grasslands, woodlands, forests and extensive cultivated areas.

5. Agro-Ecological Zones The area has two distinct agro-ecological zones in which soil fertility and rainfall are highly correlated with topography and elevation. The arid Maasai Plains abutting the Gregory Rift Wall (200-500mm per year) and the semi-arid Maasai and Ardai Plains (500-700 mm).

6. Mode of Production Agro-pastoralism is the predominant mode of production among the people inhabiting the area Pockets of intensive irrigated crop production around Mto wa Mbu have developed rapidly during the last 50 years, drawing in immigrants from all parts of Tanzania.

7. Changing Grazing Lands The Lake Manyara area is highly diverse and dynamic from a bio-physical perspective, It is extremely complex socially and has a long history of occupation. Pockets of intensive irrigated crop production at the foot of the Gregory Rift Escarpment have developed rapidly during the last 30 years. During the last decade a burgeoning land market has grown up around Mto wa Mbu An acre of irrigated land can now change hands for over one million shillings (US$ 1,000).

8. Changing Grazing Lands (contd) Irrigated lands are located at the interface between pastoral and agricultural societies and owe their existence to perennial springs and extensive wetlands. Large tracts of land previously used for grazing by pastoral communities have been appropriated by the state, and large and small scale farmers. The land frontier is closing as landholdings, village boundaries and definitions of rights to natural resources are increasingly contested, consolidated and re-defined.

9. Resource Use Conflicts Maasai pastoralists inhabiting the semi-arid plains are in conflict with village cultivators over these wetlands which comprise a key resource in their grazing system. In Mto wa Mbu, competition over poorly managed water supplies, salinisation of low lying areas due to poor soil husbandry practices

10. Resource Use Conflicts (contd) health problems associated with water pollution and waste disposal identified as the most pressing problems. All irrigated areas are experiencing growing competition with Maasai pastoralists over access to dry season grazing Conflicts between farmers and conservationists over wildlife.

11. Environmental Change Extensive mechanized commercial farming dominated the landscape around Makuyuni in the recent past. A significant factor affecting environmental change in the marginal semi-arid portions of the Makuyuni Plains

12. Environmental Change (contd) A list of large farmers ploughed vast tracts of grazing land, mined the soil for a number of years and moved on, leaving large numbers of unemployed labourers who have turned to small-scale subsistence crop production. Some of these labourers are the inhabitants of present day Mto wa Mbu town and the surrounding villages.

13. Losirwa Village The village was established during Operation Imparnat in 1974/75 as part of Esilalei village until 1997 when it was separated. The village has 4 hamlets, Losirwa, Baraka, Kambi ya Mkaa and Mungere. By 2006 the village had 4,089 households. The village has 1 dispensary, 6 pre-primary schools, a water supply system and a market. There are also 3 private tourist camp companies operating in the village and contributing to the development of the village.

14. Losirwa Village (contd) The Maasai form about 90% of the village’s population, but there are 120 other different tribes in village and sub-villages. A major problem is diminishing grazing areas and wildlife corridors by expanding built-up space; people are being attracted by: Tourism and related businesses Good water supply Good gardening using water from upland rivers

15. Losirwa Village (contd) Literacy among adults is low. Some adults are learning to read and write, classes are held under a tree. People are motivated when they see other adults learning to read and write. One older Maasai shared, “Now we can even write letters but our writing is still bad.”

16. Losirwa Village (contd) Major diseases in order of importance: malaria, TB, whose causes are understood to be dust during herding and drinking of untreated milk. Diarrhea (seasonal during hot weather), and Asthma.

17. Exposure There are several NGOs that have worked in the village construction and housing, livestock keeping and improvement of agriculture improvement; especially maize and beans; and in irrigation. TANAPA has been building classrooms through its outreach programme. Experience working with NGOs lays the foundation for and enables this community to be open to new ideas. They are open to outsiders teaching and sharing new ideas.

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