Marangu — THE summit of Africa's highest
mountain is currently overwhelmed by thousands of people, threatening
the natural feature's ecological balance.
Mt Kilimanjaro National Park Conservator, Mr Erastus Lufungulo, said
recently that the number of visitors scaling the Kibo peak was
increasing each year, apart from hundreds of their minders such as
porters, cooks and other supporting staff, thereby surpass the number of
people the mountain facilities can support.
Mr Lufungulo told visiting members of the parliamentary committee on
Land, Natural Resources and Tourism that more than 50,000 foreign
tourists scaled Mount Kilimanjaro every year, but these were normally
accompanied by a huge number of supporting staff exceeding 200,000
people.
to the KINAPA conservator, a team of around 300,000 trekkers takes
between 5 and 6 days on the mountain every year carrying tonnes of
luggage for their provisions while moving up and down the mountain.
Tanzania National Parks Director General, Mr Allan Kijazi, said that
while millions of people all over the world were scrambling to get a
chance to climb Mount Kilimanjaro, the mountain could only support
100,000 climbers every year if the environment around this important
tourism feature is to be protected.
"The 50,000 tourists who climb Mount Kilimanjaro every year make a
good number, but the problem comes when each of them wants to take along
huge teams of porters and other helpers," said Mr Kijazi, adding that
this year TANAPA would issue a directive controlling the number of
supporting staff for each mountain climber.
But this may prove a challenge because Mt Kilimanjaro has of late
been attracting a large number of world personalities, including sports,
pop and film stars, as well as political and business leaders, all of
whom demand a lot of people around them when climbing the mountain.
Described as 'world's tallest free-standing mountain,' Mt
Kilimanjaro, with its three volcanic cones - Kibo, Mawenzi and Shira -
is a dormant volcano 5,895 metres high.
The mountain tops the bill in generating income among the country's
numerous tourist attractions. The so-called Roof of Africa yields over
80bn/- annually, ahead of Ngorongoro Crater which generates 53bn/- and
Serengeti National Park which garners 45bn/-. All these tourism features
are located in the Northern Circuit.
By Marc Nkwame,
Tanzania Daily News (Dar es Salaam)
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