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Rainmaking project still on the cards
2008-01-30 09:35:18
By Correspondent Felister Peter
The government is in its final stages of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Thailand for rain making demonstrations, slated to take place between March and May this year.
In an interview with The Guardian in Dar es Salaam, the Director of Transport and Communication in the Ministry of Infrastructure Development, Bartholomew Rufunjo, said the two governments were still working on the draft.
``Each government has to properly check the contents because the rainmaking is a cost-shared project``, said Dr Rufunjo.
He said the demonstrations would focus areas with special activities such as agriculture and power generation.
The first demonstration would be done at Usangu in Mbeya, Iringa and Dodoma areas.
Rufunjo said the government would take care of the Thailand rainmakers and all local experts as well as providing an airplane that would be used during cloud seeding. Thailand would provide both the technology and equipment, he said.
He said rainmaking demonstrations would be held between March and May because the process could not be undertaken during dry season.
Rufunjo said rainfall was more induced during the wet season. He assured Tanzanians living in areas where the demonstration would be held that the water would be safe.
He said water from the artificial rain would be suitable for both agricultural use and human consumption.
According to him, Thais had been using the technology for more than 30 years and nobody had been adversely affected.
Meanwhile, the Director of the Tanzania Metrological Agency (TMA), Dr Mohamed Mhita, has told this reporter that his organization is ready for the demonstration and they are only waiting for a go ahead.
TMA will be responsible of preparing experts, who shall be drawn from Ministry of Water, Tanzania Meteorological Agency the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and National Environment Management Council (NEMC).
A Thai delegation came to the country last year to look into the possibility of doing rainmaking trials.
The delegation came at Prime Minister Edward Lowassa`s invitation, after the PM had visited Thailand early last year, when Tanzania was facing acute drought.
Some water experts, however, have challenged the move, saying it will have an adverse effect on the environment.
A scientist, Dr Victoria Ngomuo from Community Water and Demographer at the Water Resources Institute (WRI) in Dar es Salaam, warned that the government must first study the viability, practicability and implications of artificial rain technology before importing it.
She said chemicals used in the production of artificial rain could affect climatic patterns, ecosystem, water sources and the soil.
Dr Ngomuo said the chemicals were catalysts which, when in microscopic particles, attracted water vapour that condensed to form droplets of water known as artificial rain.
Excessive use of the chemicals, Dr Ngomuo warned, would affect biodiversity and make the soil unproductive, besides being a water pollutant.
The chemicals are most likely to affect the natural hydrological circle in the atmosphere, she said.
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