Tanzania Gets Innovative With Construction

Common Ground Tanzania Architects in Tanzania are using three-dimensional printers to construct housing and other buildings, also using soil rather than artificial materials – the production of which emit greenhouse gases that cause climate change. The builders hope to construct a village called New Hope to the west of the capital of Dar es Salaam that will include a school for almost 500 girls as well as farming plots, livestock pens and recreational areas, reported CNN. This positive story suggests Tanzanians can live in greater harmony with nature and each other as they attempt to strike a balance between modern and traditional approaches to life. But it isn’t always the case. One major issue in Tanzania today, for example, involves officials kicking traditional Maasai communities off their ancestral land to make way for conservation efforts and economic development. The Maasai are nomadic pastoralists whose lives revolve around their herds. As Amnesty International explained, Tanzanian officials and private businesses, including a trophy-hunting company tied to the prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, have colluded to evict Maasai folks from their land. Officials have also shut down government services in Maasai communities to compel people to move to towns and cities, added Human Rights Watch. The government frequently offers displaced Maasai people houses to live in and a few acres of land to farm. “But the houses do not reflect the needs or complexities of Maasai families, which traditionally are large, polygamous, multigenerational and multihousehold,” argued an Al Jazeera opinion piece. Those who speak out against the relocation have faced threats and intimidation from rangers and security forces, creating a climate of fear, HRW wrote. “You’re not allowed to say anything,” one displaced resident told the organization, adding that people have “fear in their hearts.” Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan says she wants to protect the environment from the Maasai’s livestock. She has proposed enlarging the area of protected land in the southern African country from 30 to 50 percent of its territory, cutting into the Maasai’s ancestral lands, noted Deutsche Welle. But critics of the evictions say the government gives hunting and tourism companies free rein on the vacated land. Hassan’s plans also involve new airports, tourism facilities, and other accoutrements of a growing capitalistic economy, added Bloomberg. These moves might cause international friction. Kenya, for example, frowns upon the trophy hunting that Tanzania promotes, reported Reuters. Kenyan officials fear that elephants that generate money from tourists there might cross the border into Tanzania where hunters might kill them. In July, for instance, hunters in Tanzania had shot five bull elephants in the prior few months. There arguably is little point in preserving nature, Kenyan officials told the newswire, if the goal is to destroy it. Share this story