TANZANIA IMPROVES MARINE SAFETY WITH NEW FERRY
(Posted 01st March 2015)
Tanzania has for some time now had a dismal record when it comes to marine safety with a series of accidents on lakes and on the ocean with thousands of lives lost over the past decades.
Authorities were stung by sustained criticism over their approach to marine safety and oversight, and the failure to introduce new ferries to allow the people of Tanzania safe journeys when travelling across the country’s lakes and ocean.
It is therefore good news that the formal inauguration by President Kikwete of a new ferry, MV Dar es Salaam, is now only a short time away after the trial runs were successfully concluded last week.
The new ferry, which can carry up to three hundred passengers at a time, plus cargo, will link Dar es Salaam with the municipality of Bagamoyo. It was fully funded by the government of Tanzania and according to information received from Dar by a Danish company at a cost of over 8 billion Tanzania Shillings.
Other ferries ply the ocean waves between Dar es Salaam and the main Zanzibari island of Unguja, and from Unguja to Pemba. Rail ferries connect the Lake Victoria city of Mwanza with Uganda’s Port Bell, Kampala’s lakeside harbour while on Lake Tanganyika it is the famous MV Liemba which, though over 100 years old, still provides safe means of lake transport along the Tanzanian shores of the lake. (Also see a feature article about this former German navy ship via https://atcnews.org/2013/12/12/100-and-counting-mv-liemba-still-going-strong/)
