VEGETABLE farmers in Dar es Salaam have admitted to using water
believed to be highly polluted to irrigate their gardens, saying they
have no access to clean water.
A cross-section of city-based farmers interviewed by The Guardian
yesterday said they have now resorted to random spills from homes and
factories to irrigate their plots of land not out of choice, but of
necessity.
They emphasized that if clean water, piped or from wells, was conveniently available, they would use that instead.
Yesterday, this paper ran a front-page story in which national
health protection authorities warned that people living in major cities
and towns, who consume vegetables grown in urban gardens, were exposed
to health risks including incurable diseases.
In the alert, both the Tanzania Food and Drugs Authority (TFDA) and
Tanzania Food and Nutrition Centre said that because of the use of
polluted water to water edible crops, inorganic compounds from
industries were more likely to find their way into consumers’ bodies. At
the same time, uncooked vegetable sandwiches and salads also allow
sewerage bacteria into eaters’ stomachs, increasing the risk of
illnesses such as cancer, kidney failure, and impaired cognitive
function in children.
But in their responses, the farmers said they found themselves
caught between a rock and a hard place: either to water their gardens
with whatever is available - namely polluted water - or stay jobless.
Practically all of them said they chose the latter.
According to Edward Melikioni, who has been growing veggies in
Msimbazi Valley, Kigogo in the city since 1991, he and his colleagues
have diverted a channel that flows sewerage water from Buguruni into
their gardens “for the sake of convenience.”
“It’s not what we want to do or like to do. It’s what we have to
do,” said a visibly peeved Melikioni when asked about the possible
health repercussions from their action.
“We have no access to safe water from taps or wells, despite the
fact that politicians have repeatedly promised that they would construct
wells for us vegetable farmers,” he added. “So far that hasn’t
happened.”
Another farmer, Lucia Amandusi, also pushed the blame on the
government, saying she previously used clean river water obtained from
the Msimbazi River before it was polluted by industrial and domestic
waste spills.
Lucia has been practicing vegetable farming in the area for the
past 45 years and says since this is the only work she has even known,
she will have to continue even though she knows the water in the river
is no longer anywhere near pure.
“So far my farming activity has helped me build a house and
educate my child up to college level,” she said, adding that to stop
now is not an option.
Oscar Abdul lamented that despite the crucial role played by
farmers like himself of supplying city residents with much-needed
vegetables, authorities had turned a blind eye to their plight by
failing to provide them with clean and safe water for their gardens.
“We now have to depend on the water that flows from Buguruni for
irrigation, since we were stopped from using water from Msimbazi river
which was declared unsafe after being polluted with chemicals from
factories,” he explained.
Yet another farmer, Mande Christian, maintained that if their
activities do indeed pose a health threat to consumers, they as farmers
cannot be blamed because they are just trying to make ends meet while it
is up to the authorities to ensure that they work in a safe and
conducive environment.
“We solely depend on this work for our livelihoods…if it is
condemned, we will become jobless and our families will suffer,” said
Mande.
Mandela Pius, a farmer in the city’s Tazara area, said they would
be happy to have access to clean water and were willing to pay for it as
long as they are not made jobless.
The Kinondoni municipal information officer, Sebastian Mhowela,
said according to the Dar es Salaam City Master Plan of 1976, only one
area is designated for farming activities within the municipality -
Mpiji valley, which runs along the borders with Kibaha and Bagamoyo
districts in Coast Region.
All other farming activities in the city are conducted on either
private land that the municipal authorities cannot interfere with, or
open spaces, Mhowela said.
In her warning, TFDA manager in-charge of Food Risk Analysis,
Candida Shirima, said the contamination of vegetables with chemicals
such as heavy metals or pesticides residues at levels above tolerated
severely compromised their safety and fitness for human consumption.
Meanwhile, TFNC research officer for nutrition training, Walbert
Mgeni, said: “Organic compounds such as bacteria found in vegetables can
be destroyed by cooking for a long time, but chemicals which include
heavy metals remain in vegetables and can find their way into people’s
bodies.”SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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