Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa, will soon get a cable car service and it is hoped to bring more tourists to Tanzania amid worry of local mountain guides and porters to lose jobs.
Trade and tourism are the two main sectors that support local people in the area and officials argue cable car will help children, elderly and physically disabled to experience Mount Kilimanjaro. It is also said tourist can get up the mountain faster with the new installations.
However, Kili Meru Mountain Guides Society leader Jennifer Francis said the government has not been honest about the new project to them by not telling about the negative aspects of the current and future generations.
Each year tens and millions of dollars are earned by the area in terms of tourism as about 50,000 tourists climb the mountain. The figure could be increased by fifty percent if believed to the predictions of deputy minister for natural resources and tourism, Constantine Kanyasu.
He adds the tourism industry will be boosted but it will take time and things are not so easy.
He further said, “Of course, changes come with some effects. We should not expect Tanzania to be the same in one hundred years to come…we need to have changes.”
Meanwhile, it is learned the officials will take up social and environmental tests before going ahead with the project.
Mount Kilimanjaro Porters Society leader Edson Matauna said, “If our jobs will be assured, and these clients in the cable cars will have no negative effects on us, I think there will be no tension between porters and the government.”
