At least 306,358 animals, including cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys have been killed by drought in Tanzania in the past five months, a cabinet minister has said.
Mashimba Ndaki, minister for livestock and fisheries, said an assessment conducted by experts from the ministry in January showed that the animals were killed between September 2021 and January 2022 for lack of water and pasture caused by long dry spells.
The animals were killed in Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Manyara, Morogoro, Tanga and Coast, the six regions that were most hit by the long dry spells caused by erratic seasonal rains, Ndaki told Xinhua.
“We thank God that rains started falling in January in most of the six regions, breathing a sigh of relief to livestock keepers,” he said when reached by telephone.
Ndaki said the government has taken a number of measures aimed at saving the animals from further deaths, including construction of cattle dip vats to protect the cattle from ticks.
The Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries, in collaboration with the Ministry of Water, has been digging boreholes in selected areas to provide water to the animals. ■
