Posted on February, 02 2010

My name is Siwema Prosper . I am  29 years old and I live in  Kisiwani village in Mangula area of Morogoro in Tanzania.

I was born and brought up on my parents’ farm. I inherited the farm from them and now work on the farm on with my husband and child. I have managed it for 5 years now. Apart from working in the farm, I produce and sell bananas, vegetable cassava and pawpaw fruits to small scale traders in Mangula centre and they sell as a far as Morogoro.

I have observed climate and weather changes in my village of Kisiwani for last five years now. My neighbors in the  village and  at the farm have equally noticed changes . I have kept record of these changes from the harvest I make from the farm and the loss I incur due to change of seasons.

From March, April and May we experience short rains instead of long rains, as is normal. Equally, in the months of October, November and December we witness long rains instead of short rains. The long rains come with flash floods that affect our farms, village and causes displacements.

The weather pattern has changed. We experience a cold spell that is accompanied by terrible cold and in some months like June and July we receive a warm weather. The level of water we used to irrigate our farms has reduced drastically and the small streams that use to feed us with water has changed it course.  The rich vegetation along the streams that comes from Ruaha River to our village is no more. We don’t see several birds that use to take water from the streams. I don’t know whether they are dead or they have immigrated to Mikumi areas or Ruaha River.

The environment around our area has changed compared to four years ago. The area is getting dry and sometime we experience droughts whereby the vegetation gets dry, trees shedding its leaves and wild animals straying into our villages in search of water and pastures.

I feel the main consequences of climate change in my area are due to human activities in the forest and the water catchment areas. I also feel that the practice of burning chunks of land for farming has had an effect. The changes in local climate is changing the seasons and rains patterns, resulting in weather changes whereby we get more cold spells and warm weather than before.

It has changed the way I live because now I expect flash floods that will displace us from our homes. We have also incurred a lot of expense in buying malaria drugs during the warm seasons as we see increase in mosquitoes unlike before. The human / wildlife conflict has also increased drastically as monkeys and rabbits attack our drying farms and village in search of water and pastures. The climate change has made me harvest water in big tanks and sand dams in my farm. I use it for domestic purposes and small scale irrigation around my compound.

In my opinion the government should protect the water catchment areas, rivers and forest and they should pass law that outlaws farming around the forests and water towers. They should also educate the communities on climate changes as we lack enough knowledge on the changes now. They should involve us in conservation and planting of trees in our areas and in the forests.  Currently the government is doing nothing in assisting us to adapt to the changes. We need more.