{A NUMBER of regions adversely affected by climate change are up for an adaptation programme as Tanzania plans to launch a massive tree planting countrywide campaign in April.}
Speaking exclusively to the ‘Daily News’, the Minister of State in the Vice-President’s Office (Union Affairs and Environment), Mr January Makamba, named the regions that have been badly hit by climate change as Dodoma, Singida, Shinyanga and Manyara.
Mr Makamba was reacting to a study showing that climate change could lead to significant decline in electricity production in coming decades as water resources are disrupted as energy demands continue to increase with economic development and growing world population.
In the study published in the journal Nature Climate Change early this week, researchers looked at 1,400 thermoelectric power plants and more than 24,000 hydropower plants worldwide.
Mr Makamba said that his office was in talks with an international development organisation in a move aimed at enabling the government access the Green Climate Fund (GCF), to assist the most affected regions to counter effects of Climate Change by putting in place water projects.
The GCF is a fund within the framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) founded as a mechanism to assist developing countries in adaptation and mitigation practices to counter climate change.
The minister pointed out that Tanzania was losing one million hectares of land annually to deforestation, noting the need for public education to understand in depth effects of climate change and ways to counter them.
“Effects of climate change do not come abruptly but very slowly making it hard for most people to really believe or understand that droughts, floods and many other effects we are experiencing are a result of the effects brought about our own destructive actions, hence the need for intensive public education,” he explained.
He said currently, the nation was feeling the negative effects of climate change, citing low water levels in rivers and hydropower plants. These, he noted, would in the long run also affect other sectors, including tourism, water and agriculture.
“Concerted efforts must be taken to change public understanding on effects of climate change so we can change the trends of deforestation and destructions of water sources.
We must change the trend of deforestation to gain net afforestation,” he explained. The Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) Director General, Dr Agnes Kijazi, concurred with the study on decline of electricity production globally due to climate change effects in the coming decades, pointing to the long periods of droughts.
Dr Kijazi stressed on the importance of protecting sources of water by planting trees and ensuring there are no human activities, most especially those allowing water to flow into hydropower generating dams and using water resources more efficiently.
According to the study, hydropower and thermoelectric power together contribute 98 per cent of the world’s electricity generation at present. These power-generating technologies both strongly depend on water availability – while water temperature for cooling also plays a critical role for thermoelectric power generation.
The 2015 Paris Climate Conference- COP21, a historic agreement to combat climate change and unleash actions and investment towards a low carbon, resilient and sustainable future was agreed by 195 nations.
Source:Daily News:[Four climate change-hit regions in special mitigation strategy->http://www.dailynews.co.tz/index.php/home-news/45997-four-climate-change-hit-regions-in-special-mitigation-strategy]
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