TANZANIA and Kenya have started commemorating Mara Day every year in a bid to conserve and protect Mara River Basin which is shared by the two East African sister countries .
The day is scheduled for September 15. The decision was made by Lake Victoria Basin Council of Ministers session which sat in the Rwandan capital Kigali May last year. The day is also designed to enable the two nations celebrate the great migration of about 15.5 million wildebeests from the world famous Serengeti National Park (SENAPA) in Tanzania to Masai Mara Game Reserve on the Kenyan side.
Mara Day is now seen as a big day for conservationists and environmentalists striving to protect the Mara River Basin which reportedly threatened by increased human activities on both sides. The river starts on Mau forests on the Kenyan side and passes through Masai Mara Game Reserve and into SENAPA before discharging its waters into Lake Victoria on the Tanzanian side.
"We want to use the celebrations to create awareness on the importance of Mara river and its challenges", said, Mr Dimosso Oscar, Acting Water Officer at Musoma office . The first Mara Day celebrations were held in the Kenyan Bomet District on September 15 last year.
This year, Tanzania is going to host the celebrations for the first time in Mugumu town, capital of Serengeti District. Serengeti District leaders are happy that their district has been selected from among four districts with some villages bordering Mara River Basin on the Tanzanian side to host the regional event involving two countries.
Apart from Serengeti, other three districts bordering the Mara River Basin in Tanzania are Tarime, Rorya, and Butiama where the founding father of the nation the late Mwalimu Julias Nyerere was born and brought up. "This is a big honour and it is an opportunity that makes our out District (Serengeti) becomes more famous inside on a positive way", said Mr John Ng'oina the Serengeti District Council Chairman.
"We thank the government for accepting us to host Mara Day, it could have been taken to any of the other three districts", the council chairman told a highly profile stakeholders meeting sat at Giraffe hotel in Mugumu town on Monday to discuss necessary preparations meant at making the forthcoming Mara Day successfully.
No comments:
Post a Comment