AUTHORITIES in Manyara Region are planning to make Lake Babati a new tourist attraction by clearing invasive plants currently choking the water body.

Faraja Ngerageza, assistant Manyara Regional Administrative Secretary, said here recently that Babati is one of the few lakes in East Africa located near towns, adding that it has a considerable number of hippos to complement its tourism value.

For years Lake Babati has been a base for water activities such as boat rides, fishing and hiking along the perimeters of its shores.

“A lake within a town is just as interesting as Kenya’s Nairobi National Park near the city,” Ngerageza told environment journalists on a working visit under the auspices of the ‘Protect Natural Resources’ activity supported by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

According to Ngerageza, investors have already expressed interest to invest in tourist facilities on the shores of Lake Babati, only that some environmental interventions need to be applied onto the water body to rescue it from disappearing.

Lake Babati is Tanzania's only declared hippopotamus reserve. Water horses are usually found during the day on the lake shore amongst the reeds and grasses.

Siltation caused by irresponsible farming activities upstream the rivers that flow into the lake has caused water levels to diminish. Also, the mounds of soil washing into Lake Babati are also a source of weeds and other invasive plants currently covering a large percentage of its water surface.

Members of the Journalists Environment Association of Tanzania discovered that human activities, including agriculture and settlements have blocked the passageway through which hippos migrate between Lake Babati and Lake Hanang’ in the neighboring Hanang District.

Ecological experts here say that the hippo route between Babati and Katesh should also be considered as an important wildlife corridor.

During the 1997-1998 heavy El-Nino rains, Lake Babati flooded, sending gushing waters into the adjacent Babati town at a time when Manyara was still part of Arusha Region.