MAGAZETI LEO JUMAPILI

CLIMATE CHANGE WILL AFFECT NATURE’S ECOSYSTEMS AND THE HABITATS

By Friday Simbaya, Iringa

Climate change will affect nature’s ecosystems and the habitats that support life—from oceans to grasslands to forests. 

Changes are expected to alter the makeup and functioning of ecosystems, as well as some of the critical benefits that ecosystems provide to people; this is according to United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Climate change can threaten ecosystems that have already been weakened by other human activities such as pollution, development, and overharvesting. This fact sheet describes some of the ways that climate change affects ecosystems.

What Is an Ecosystem? 

An ecosystem is an interdependent system of plants, animals, and microorganisms interacting with one another and with their physical environment. 

Ecosystems provide people with food, goods, medicines, and many other products. They also play a vital role in nutrient cycling, water purification, and climate moderation.

Recently the Vice President of the United Republic of Tanzania, Samia Hassan has launched a Task Force that is going to work for 30 days and make recommendations on how to protect the ecosystem of Great Ruaha River. 

VP Mama Samia said it is the responsibility of every Tanzanian to ensure that they protect the ecosystem of the river which dries is for 169 days after rain season stops. 

The ecosystem of the Great Ruaha River Basin contributes 20% of GDP and more than 6 million people depend on the presence of the ecosystem of the Great Ruaha River for livelihoods. 

The launch of task force took place in Iringa region and was attended by regional commissioners of Iringa and Njombe regions and various ministers including Prof Jumanne Maghembe, Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, Eng. Grayson Lwenge Minister of Water and Irrigation, and Eng. Charles Tizeba Minister of Agriculture and Livestock.

Others were the chief of government institutions, MPs, Regional administrative secretaries, district commissioners from Iringa, Mufindi, Kilolo and Mpwapwa.

Meanwhile, WWF-Ruaha Water Program (WWF-RWP) is in the process of developing advocacy strategy for Great Ruaha Catchment and has hired a consultant to support in the process, and for the time being the consultant is collecting information from multiple stakeholders. 

WWF-RWP Community Development Officer, Makfura Evergris told The Guardian on Sunday that the one day consultative stakeholder meeting was organized in Dodoma for the purpose of discussing and getting views from targeted stakeholders and develops the first advocacy strategy document.

WWF-TZ through the Freshwater and Climate Change program implemented ‘Sustainable, Water, Access, Use and Management (SWAUM) to restore perennial flows of the Great Ruaha River.

The Rufiji Basin Water Board (RBWB) and WWF’s Ruaha Water Program (WWF RWP), with support from WWF-UK and funds from the UK Department for International Development (DFID), are working together to address this concern.

The first phase of WWF initiative ran from 2003-2010 with second phase scheduled from 2011-2016. 

The Great Ruaha River is drying up and the reduced flows in the river have been recorded since the early 1990s when complete drying of sections of the river was first observed.

Faced with the complexity of water governance – disagreements & conflicts between water users, sectors and levels of government; climate and knowledge uncertainties; limited capacity, particularly among service providers – this initiative is piloting a collective learning approach with catchment stakeholders to enable them to better address the constraints affecting water access, use and management, and ultimately to restore perennial flows in the Great Ruaha.

According to WWF findings, the river is now drying up completely for long periods – up to 6 months – in the dry seasons, causing among other things, water shortages for downstream villages, death of animals in the Ruaha National Park, increased conflict between different water users (crop farmers, pastoralists, fishing community), and water shortages at Mtera and Kidatu dams leading to serious national power cuts.

WWF Tanzania Country Office (TCO) has identified three river sub-basins as priority areas for its 5-year (2015-2020) country Strategic Plan; these are the Great Ruaha, Kilombero as well as Mara river sub-basins.

The WWF in their freshwater conservation goal said by 2020, environmental flows are restored to, or maintained at, target levels in Great Ruaha, Mara and Kilombero rivers contributing to water security for men, women and wildlife dependent on those flows.

MIILI YA ASKARI NANE WALIOUAWA NA MAJAMBAZI MKOANI PWANI YAAGWA RASMI

Waziri wa Mambo ya Ndani ya Nchini, Mwigulu Nchemba, akitoa heshima za mwisho Dar es Salaam leo mbele ya majeneza yenye miili ya askari nane waliouawa na majambazi Kibiti wilayani Mkuranga mkoani Pwani juzi jioni.Kulia kwake ni Naibu Waziri wa wizara hiyo, Masauni.

Waziri wa Mambo ya Ndani ya Nchini, Mwigulu Nchemba, akitoa pole kwa wafiwa.

Ndugu,jamaa na marafiki wa wafiwa wakiwa katika shughuli hiyo ya kuaga miili ya wapendwa wao.

Maofisa wa Uhamiaji wakiwa kwenye shughuli hiyo.

Wananchi wakiwa katika shughuli hiyo ya uagaji wa miili hiyo.

Maofisa wa Polisi wakishiriki kuaga miili ya wenzao hao.

Foleni ya kuaga miili hiyo.

Waziri wa Mambo ya Ndani ya Nchini, Mwigulu Nchemba (kulia), akiteta jambo na Mkuu wa Jeshi la Polisi (IGP), Ernest Mangu wakati wa kuaga miili hiyo.

Mmoja wa ndugu za askari hao akilia kwa uchungu.

Ni kilio kwa kuwapoteza wapendwa wao.

Ni huzuni.

Na Dotto Mwaibale 

WAZIRI wa Mambo ya Ndani ya Nchi, Mwigulu Nchemba amewatangazia kiama watu wote waliohusika kuwaua askari polisi nane Kibiti wilayani Mkuranga mkoani Pwani.

Akizungumza wakati wa kuaga miili ya askari hao jijini Dar es Salaam leo asubuhi Mwigulu alisema watu hao watakamatwa wote na kufikishwa kwenye mkono wa sheria.

"Kitendo hiki cha mauaji kilichofanyika dhidi ya askari wetu hakivumiliki hata kidogo waliohusika tutawatafuta na kuwakamata" alisema Mwigulu.

Aliwaomba wananchi wa maeneo husika kutoa ushirikiano kwa jeshi la polisi ili kuwapata wahusika wa tukio hilo.

Katika hatua nyingine Mwigulu ameitaka wizara husika kuhakikisha inatoa fidia kwa ndugu wa askari hao na majeruhi badala ya kuchukua muda mrefu kuitoa.

"Naomba fidia kwa askari hawa tuliowapoteza wakitumikia taifa itolewa haraka bila kucheleweshwa" aliongeza Mwigulu.

Mkuu wa Jeshi la Polisi Nchini (IGP), Ernest Mangu alisema watuhumiwa wote waliohusika kufanya mauaji hayo ni lazima watafikiwa na mkono wa dola.

Alisema wananchi wa eneo hilo wanawafahamu wahusika hivyo amewaomba washirikiane na polisi ili kuwapata vinginevyo nguvu itatumika.

Alisema linapotokea tukio kama hilo kuna baadhi ya watu wamekuwa wakishabikia kupitia mitandao ya kijamii hivyo akatoa onyo kuwa watakao bainika na wao watakamatwa kwa kutenda kosa.

Askari waliopoteza maisha katika tukio hilo la kinyama wametajwa kuwa ni pamoja na Mkaguzi Msaidizi Peter Kiguu, Koplo Francis, PC Haruna, PC Jackson, PC Zakaria, PC Siwale, PC Maswi na PC Ayoub

North Korea parades military might and warns US amid nuclear test fears

As thousands of soldiers mass at Kim Il-sung square, Pyongyang tells US to end its dangerous ‘military hysteria’

Missiles are paraded in Pyongyang on Saturday as part of celebrations marking the birth of founder Kim Il-sung on Saturday. Photograph: AP

Justin McCurry in Tokyo and Tom Phillips in Beijing

North Korea has held a vast military parade to celebrate the birth of its founding father, Kim Il-sung, and warned that it was prepared to take the “toughest” action unless the US ended its “military hysteria”, as speculation grows that the regime is preparing to conduct a nuclear test.

On a sunny Saturday morning in the capital, Pyongyang, military vehicles and tens of thousands of soldiers filled Kim Il-sung square as a band played rousing military music, the instruments falling silent for oaths of loyalty to the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

Experts said the array of military hardware included what appeared to be a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) being carried along the streets on a huge truck.

Yonhap quoted South Korean military officials as saying they had not seen the missile before and that it appeared to be a new type of ICBM.

North Korean state television showed what appeared to be several KN-08 and KN-14 missiles. Although they have yet to be tested, analysts say the missiles could one day be capable of hitting targets as far away as the continental United States.

 Tanks line up for the parade on Saturday. Photograph: AP

Also on show for the first time were Pukkuksong submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBM), which have a range of over 1,000km (600 miles). 

Experts said the display of multiple SLBMs indicated that North Korea was closer to being able to launch submarine-based missiles, which are harder to detect. “It suggests a commitment to this programme,” said Joshua Pollack, editor of the Washington-based Nonproliferation Review. “Multiple SLBMs seems like a declaration of intent to advance the programme”.

A senior North Korean official used the parade to accuse the US of “creating a war situation” with the recent dispatch of warships to the region.

“We will respond to an all-out war with an all-out war and a nuclear war with our style of a nuclear attack,” Choe Ryong-hae, who is rumoured to be the second-most powerful politician in North Korea, said during the parade. 

Kim, dressed in a black suit and white shirt, and flanked by senior military and Workers’ party officials, applauded and occasionally smiled as he watched the tributes to his grandfather, who was born 105 years ago today.

China urges North Korea and US to step back from brink of war

But the so-called Day of the Sun was clouded in uncertainty as the world waited to see if Kim Jong-un, the country’s third-generation ruler, would provoke a potential regional crisis with what would be North Korea’s sixth nuclear test in just over a decade, or a test launch of an ICBM.

As the USS aircraft carrier Carl Vinson and its strike group sailed towards the peninsula in a show of force, North Korea’s official KCNA news agency, citing a spokesman for the General Staff of the Korean People’s Army, warned of “merciless” retaliation against any US provocation.

Donald Trump’s decision to send an “armada” of warships to waters off the tense peninsula, coupled with recent US strikes in Syria and Afghanistan, were proof that Washington had chosen the path of “open threat and blackmail”, KCNA said.

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un salutes during the parade. Photograph: AP

“Our toughest counteraction against the US and its vassal forces will be taken in such a merciless manner as not to allow the aggressors to survive,” it added.

It said the Trump administration’s “serious military hysteria” has reached a “dangerous phase that can no longer be overlooked”.

It added: “Under the prevailing grave situation, the United States has to come to its senses and make a proper option for the solution of the problem.”

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As the parade unfolded in Pyongyang, China’s state-run media warned that the US president was mistaken if he believed that piling military pressure on North Korea would resolve the regime’s nuclear and ballistic missile programmes.

The Global Times said Trump’s decision to drop the “mother of all bombs” on Afghanistan was clearly “a new gimmick in US military deterrence” designed to intimidate Kim Jong-un.

“North Korea must have felt the shock wave travelling all the way from Afghanistan,” the Communist party-controlled newspaper said in an editorial.

However, the Global Times, which sometimes reflects government views, said the use of such a “vicious weapon” was in fact likely to make Pyongyang even more determined to upgrade its own arsenal. “[Trump] has demonstrated a certain level of obsession and pride toward US military prowess,” it said, adding, that the US president “may go down in history as the ‘war president’”.

As North Korea’s only ally and biggest trading partner, China has come under unprecedented pressure in recent days to use its influence to persuade Kim not to risk conflict with a nuclear test or ballistic missile launch.

On Friday, China again called for talks to defuse the crisis. “We call on all parties to refrain from provoking and threatening each other, whether in words or actions, and not let the situation get to an irreversible and unmanageable stage,” the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, told reporters in Beijing.

Speaking to Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, on Friday night, Wang said steps were needed to prevent “war and chaos” on the Korean peninsula.

US officials have said the policy of “strategic patience” pursued by the Obama administration has ended, after years of diplomatic pressure and international sanctions failed to slow North Korea’s progress towards developing nuclear missiles capable of striking the US mainland – a milestone some experts believe is only years away.

In echoes of the bellicose rhetoric that reverberated around the Korean peninsula during its last major crisis in the spring of 2013, KCNA said North Korea would respond in kind to any perceived US military provocation.

Referring to the country by its official title, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, it warned: “The army and people of the DPRK will as ever courageously counter those who encroach upon the dignity and sovereignty of the DPRK and will always mercilessly ravage all provocative options of the US with Korean-style toughest counteraction.”

Agencies contributed to this report

ASASI YA KIJAMII YA TREE OF HOPE YAWAPIGA MSASA VIONGOZI WA DINI

Tanga, JAMII imetakiwa kupiga vita vitendo vya ukatili wa kijinsia watoto na wazee ikiwa na pamoja na viongozi wa dini kuzitumia nafasi zao kukomesha ukatili huo.

Akifungua katika mkutano wa wadau uliowashirikisha viongozi wa dini na wadau mbalimbali kutoka Wilaya ya Pangani, Lushoto, Handeni na Tanga mjini kupitia mradi wa GBV, Mkurugenzi wa Tree of Hope , Fortunata Manyeresa, alisema viongozi wa dini wako na nafasi kubwa ya kutokomeza ukatili wa kijinsia maeneo yao.

Alisema vitendo vya ukatili vya kijinsia vimekuwa vikishamiri kila siku hivyo kuwataka viongozi hao wa dini kutumia nafasi zao katika jamii kuhakikisha vitendo hivyo vinakomeshwa.

“Jambo la kufurahisha hapa leo tupo na viongozi wa dini tofauti pamoja na wanaharakati, tutumie nafasi zetu kwa kukemea vitendo vya ukatili” alisema Manyeresa na kuongeza.

“Bado ukatili wa kijinsia kwa watoto na wazee unaendelea hili ni jambo la kuhuzunisha na linatakikana kupingwa kwa nguvu zote kwa kushirikiana na Serikali” alisema

Afisa mradi Tree of Hope, Goodluck Malilo, aliwataka wanaharakati kutoka Wilayani kuwa mabalozi wa kupambana na vitendo vya ukatili watoto na wazee.

Alisema kwa kupaza sauti moja vitendo hivyo vinaweza kutokomezwa hivyo kuwataka baada ya kupata maelekezo na mbinu kuhakikisha wanawafikisha katika vyombo vya sheria wote wanaojihusisha na ukatili wa kijinsia.

Kwa upande wake Mwanaharakati kutoka Wilayani Mkinga, Fidea Mtambo alisema vijijini kuna changamoto kubwa ya kupambana na vitendo vya kikatili hivyo kuitaka Asasi hiyo kuendeleza mapambana yake kijiji kwa kijiji.

Nae Ustadhi, Ustadhi Abdalla Mbena kutoka kata ya Donge Tanga mjini, alisema kuna baadhi ya watu wanaofanyiwa ukatili wa kijinsia wamekuwa waoga kutoa taarifa kwa vyombo vya dola.

Alisema ili kuweza kutokomeza ni wajibu wa kila mmoja kuwa balozi wa kupinga vitendo vya ukatili vya kijinsia katika eneo lake.