AfricaPress-Tanzania: PRODUCTIVE industries still leave a lot to be desired when it comes to protecting the environment, if recent inspection in Northern Zone is anything to go by.
Apparently as Tanzania marks the 46th World Environment Day, the National Environment Management Council (NEMC) inspected a total of 460 factories in the Northern Zone and discovered that more than 53 per cent fell short to nature protection rules and regulations.
“There are 260 factories that lack the environment certification, some were established without undergoing the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA), while others still breached the required regulations in their respective operations,” revealed NEMC’s Zonal Manager Lewis Mtemi.
That means out of 460 factories that have been inspected by NEMC, some 200 possess clean bills of health regarding the set standards of environment protection.
According to Mr Mtemi, operators of some of the factories lacking EIA certifications claimed that their firms were founded long before the country’s independence and therefore the environment acts were written after their existence.
The NEMC Northern Zone Assistant Engineer, Ms Nancy Nyenga, pointed out that communities have started to take negative environment occurrences as normal and therefore, even when cautioned against destructive habits, they hardly take heed.
“People are used to drought, famine and other hazards thinking it is normal, not knowing that most of these disasters are man-made, resulting to negative effects of climate change and global warming,” she said.
As Tanzania joins the rest of the global community is observing the 46th ‘World Environment Day,’ with this year’s theme being ‘Celebrate Biodiversity,’ the NEMC has opted to use the media in conveying ‘ green’ messages to the public in a bid to play safe amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
The World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated on 5 June every year, and is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging awareness and action for the protection of our environment.
The Day was first held in 1974, and since then it has been a flagship campaign for raising awareness on emerging from environmental issues to marine pollution, human overpopulation, and global warming, to sustainable consumption and wildlife crime.
