Tanzania National Parks: Heavy Rainfalls have Destroyed some key Infrastructures

Lake Manyara National Park in northern Tanzania tourism circuit is temporarily inaccessible, thanks to ripple effects of the heavy rainfalls.

Located on the edge of Great Rift Valley, about 126 km west of Arusha city, Lake Manyara National Park, is probably a small, but the most stunning park, save for Serengeti. Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) says the last night’s heavy rainfalls have destroyed some key infrastructures leading to the national park, making the tourist attraction site inaccessible.

“The drift for crossing Marera River, nearly a kilometer from Lake Manyara National Park’s main gate, has been swept away by water, temporarily making the tourist attractions out of reach” TANAPA’s Corporate Communication Manager, Mr Pascal Shelutete said.

Mr Shelutete, however, allayed tourists’ fears that TANAPA’s engineers have already deployed on site, taking all means necessary to restore the drift in order to resume the services within a day.

“As we speak our engineers are on site, working extra time to ensure the drift is restored so that we can resume our services to our dearest tourists within a day” he explains. Commenting, drivers and tour guides told NCA that Tanzania National Park engineers are doing extra efforts to restore the crossing drift.

“I’ve no doubt that the services would resume soon as my tour guide on site told me that the TANAPA engineers are really working overtime to restore the swept drift” .

Covering about 330 kms, of which two-thirds is underwater, Lake Manyara National Park is a small park but very beautiful and contains tremendous diversity of habitats, animals and especially birds. The Park is located beneath the cliffs of the Manyara Escarpment, on the edge of the Rift Valley, and offers excellent game viewing and bird life.

The landscape is so diverse that its mammal and bird lists are some of the most impressive in Tanzania.

The park includes a significant portion of the lake and its shores and also large areas of ground water forest with fig and mahogany trees alternating with acacia woodland and open swampland's. Lake Manyara National Park offers varied ecosystems, breathtaking views and incredible ecological variety in a small area, rich in wildlife and amazing numbers of birds.

Lake Manyara game includes Buffalo and Wildebeest, Giraffe, Zebra, Warthog, Impala, Kirk’s Dik Dik, Waterbuck near some of the springs, and Klipspringer on the slopes of the escarpment.

The Park has a large Elephant population and is most famous for its tree-climbing Lion.

Very obvious are the huge troops of baboons – which often number in several hundred and are widely regarded as Africa’s largest.

The park provides the perfect introduction to Tanzania’s birdlife.

The alkaline soda of Lake Manyara is home to an incredible array of bird life; more than 400 species have been recorded. These include thousands of pink-hued flamingos as well as other large water birds such as pelicans, cormorants, herons, egrets, stilts, stalks, spoonbills and yellow-billed storks.