THE UNITED REPUBLIC OF TANZANIA
PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE
PRIME MINISTER’S OFFICE
MINISTRY OF REGIONAL ADMINISTRATION AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT
ARUSHA REGION
MERU DISTRICT COUNCIL BRIEF AT SULLIVAN SUMMIT
Contact Address
District Executive Director,
Meru District Council,
P.O. Box 3083,
Arusha.
Tel. (+255) 027 2553737
Fax (+255) 027 2553737
Email merudc@yahoo.co.uk
Background information
Meru district council is among the two councils that form Arumeru district. Administrative is divided into 3 divisions, 17 wards, 69 villages, 275 hamlets and 48,768 households. The district has a total population of 225,611 people according to 2002, among which 112,807 (50.1%) are males and 112,804 (49.9%) are females. Meru district council covers 1268.2 Km2
The District Council lies on the slopes of Mount Meru which is the second highest mountain in Tanzania after Kilimanjaro that rises up to 14,000ft/4516M above the sea level. The council is located in the North-Eastern part of Arusha region bordering Kilimanjaro to the east and Manyara region to the southern part. The distance from Kilimanjaro International Airport to Meru council headquarters is 15 km.
Vision and Mission of the Council
The vision of the council is to have a community with improved and sustainable lively hood.
The mission is to create conducive environment in order to provide quality social economic services to its community through effective and efficient use of resources and good governance for wellbeing of the people.
The general objective of the Council is to eradicate poverty and improve the standard of living for her people in a sustainable way, governed by the following specific objectives:-
Improving HIV/AIDS services and reducing malaria infections, provision of
access and quality social services, strengthening economic services and infrastructures, adhering to good governance and administrative services, management of natural resources and environmental protection, Social welfare, gender and community empowerment.
In order to strengthen the services, the district is divided into the following departments as follows.
Natural resource department
This aims to ensure sustainable supply of forestry products and services by maintaining sufficient forest areas under effective management, creation of employment and foreign exchange through sustainable utilization of natural resources. It also aims at ensuring ecosystem stability through conservation of forest, biodiversity, wildlife, water catchments and soil fertility.
Furthermore, Meru district council has a lot of natural forests which drain water through different tributaries so as to feed the entire population. About seven rivers run from the top downstream supporting agriculture through irrigation. Also there are attractive water springs beautifying the land.
There is plenty of virgin/fertile land suitable for further forest expansion and investment together with open areas localized in different places depending on the needs and priorities of investors. Moving around, you can visit Arusha National Park with a lot of water sources, rivers and wild animals within and outside the Park.
Lake Duluti Eco-tourism have a foot trails revolving around the Lake shore. The shores have cool weather with beautiful leisure places for climbing, picnic and refreshment. There is plentiful area for hunting in Ngarenanyuki Ward where one can have a nice time to test delicious wild animal meat, thereafter you can go to rest at Tengeru Cultural Tourism.
Have a nice time to visit Usa River town which functions as a suburb of Meru Council, it is the hub of the tourist Industry in the Nothern Tanzania. The town is located along the road for the tourists who arrive from Europe and America via Nairobi and Kilimanjaro International airport (KIA).
Some tourists stay in Usa River Town for few days before they depart either to the famous Serengeti National Park, Mount Kilimanjaro or Back to their homeland
Agriculture and Livestock sector
Agriculture
Agriculture is mainly practiced in small scale where livestock production, floriculture and seed production being the main activities. High quality agriculture seeds and flowers are produced for exports supported by fertile volcanic soil and available water sources draining from mountains.
The District council struggles to link domestic agriculture products with external markets in order to facilitate small scale farmers to sell their produce outside the nation, either it needs investors who want to venture in hand with farmers to make them have access to capital expansion.
The main types of agriculture products produced are Coffee, Bananas, Vegetables, Tomatoes, Onions, Cabbage, Carrots, Avocado, Paddy, Millet, Cassava, Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes and French beans. Farmers practice traditional farming system by using traditional farm yard manure.
Livestock
Animals kept are cattle, goats, sheeps, donkeys, pigs, poultry and camels. Cows are kept indoor producing about 967,886,900 litters per day enough for small scale industry if one needs to establish milk processing industry. The production still increases as more farmers adopt the modern methods of using artificial insemination.
Education sector
The district has a total of 23 pre-primary schools, 10 primary schools and 17 secondary schools owned privately. Also the government owns number of schools with 80 pre-primary schools, 109 primary schools and 22 secondary schools.
It also, has higher learning institution such as Makumira and Arusha Universities which are privately owned. The Institute of Community Development and The Institute of livestock Development are owned by the government. Despite of having that number of schools and colleges the district is still welcoming investors who want to venture in education sector.
Communication networks
The district is crossed with Great Southern North Road which starts from the Cape Town to Cairo, Arusha being the Centre. All tourist areas have roads and traditional roots accessible throughout the year so as to assist people going for visit.
The main road from Arusha to other regions is the tarmac that pass through the district supported by other feeder roads. The district is also located close to Kilimanjaro International Airport which is about 15 kilometers away from the airport.
Health sector
The main goal is to improve health and well being of people through the provision of quality health services with emphasis to the vulnerable groups. Creation of awareness to the community on prevention and control of the communicable diseases especially HIV/AIDS and others.
Strengthening the reproductive and child health services through the provision of quality health services and sensitizing the community to the importance of facility delivery and attending reproductive and child health clinic. Through the health department the council is struggling to do away with malaria disease as being a number one disease which kills many people.
According to the health national policy, that states that each Ward is suppose to have a Health centre and a dispensary in each village. The district has 1 government hospital, 1 private hospital, 2 government health centers and 2 health centers which are privately owned. Furthermore the government has only 23 dispensaries where by 5 dispensaries are privately owned. Since the district has 17 wards and 69 villages it welcomes other private investors who wish to invest in this sector.
Industrial sector.
The district is still having a room for industrial expansion from investors who wish to invest on the sector bearing in mind that the proposed Economic Processing Zone (EPZ) for Arusha Region is located within the council boundary.
Important tourism centers
Within the district there are some impotant touristic areas such as Arusha National Park (ANAPA), Karanga forest, Lake Duruti and Mkuru Camel Safaris in Ngarenanyuki Ward.
The resident’s hospitality, conducive weather, attractive hotels, cultural centers, curio shops, restaurants, campsites, shops and beautiful Mount Meru in the background have special appeal to tourists who visits Usa Town. In addition, Usa Town is near the magnificent Arusha National Park and Duluti Lake.
Hotels and Accommodation.
In particular, accommodation and facilities are Ngurudoto Lodge, Dik Dik, Ngaresero Lodge, Arumeru River Lodge, Country Inn Hotel, Ndoro hunters Lodge and Nomad Fly Camp and various other campsites. Recreation areas and facilities such as for sports exist only on private properties such as touristic hotels and lodges.
We are inviting all development partners from outside and within our country to come and invest in our council on their interested areas of investments.
You are all welcome at Meru district council
R.B Mbunda
District executive Director
Meru District Council
