SUE STOLBERGER'S UPDATES ON RUAHA

Great Ruaha river flowing in December 2009

Due to early rains the river was flowing well at the beginning of November. The Jongomero River had several good floods which cleaned out the old pools and assisted
the GRR to flow well past Msembe HQ and on down to Lunda. This was fantastic news for normally November is when the GRR is completely dry.

However, since the 21st of November the rain has stopped. But the good news is the river is still flowing past Msembe HQ, and attached is a photo of the river as it flows
under the bridge on December the 5th. You will see there are two channels flowing now. The photo I sent in October depicted only one channel flowing under the bridge,
therefore, despite the rain stopping, the river has improved slightly since October. To date the GRR has not stopped flowing this dry season. Let us hope the rain returns
soon.

Kindest regards Sue

Great Ruaha River still flowing October 2009

We are all thrilled to tell you that not only is the river still flowing up at Jongomero, but there is still a trickle of water reaching the Lunda end of the park. We have not had water down to Lunda in October for 14 years. This is an historic year! The photos below show how the river looks at the moment.

The water flowing under the bridge as of the 20th October 2009

The water up at my old camp , (in the Jongomero area) some 50km up stream from the gate.
20th october 2009:- Flowing portion on left of rock .

Close up of flowing portion

Although the flow is not a torrent it is certainly what we have all been working towards. This indicates that preserving the wetland from thousands of cattle, and shifting some of the small scale farmers a marked difference has been achieved.

I find this incredibly encouraging. Considering that Ruaha Park received very poor rainfall this year, and that water off-take continues on a massive scale due to irrigation in the catchment area, it proves that it doesn’t take very much to improve the situation. Therefore, with more effort directed to proper management of these precious water reserves, the objective of ensuring that the flow of the GRR reaches the Mtera Dam will be realized. This would be a remarkable achievement for Tanzania.

I also attach photos of the river in August and September 2009. The depth and width of flow in the Lunda area was really encouraging. I do hope that this progress continues, ensuring water for future generations is ensuring a future for Tanzania. I would like to congratulate Ruaha National Park for its efforts, protecting the Usangu Wetland has not been an easy situation to administer.

Sue Stolberger

12th October 2009

Dear All,

 

Just a quick update on what is going on at the school.

Yesterday  Dr Dulle delivered 150 mattresses to the school, 50 from

Mdonya  Camp, and 100 from us, Ruaha Conservation fund.  He says they

now have enough mattresses but what the Headmaster says they really

need now are beds.  140 of them are still required.  We have agreed

to purchase as many of these double decker beds as we can.  I will

find out the cost of these later on today.

 

We are also about to purchase about 150 pairs of

sheets . He said that tin trunks and school books are still needed

but the Headmaster says that as it is nearly the end of term what is

urgently required  are the beds, so that the students can at least be

more comfortable,  the other smaller items can be purchased during

the holidays as these are not needed so urgently.

 

Also he was pleased to see that the school was operating normally the

students seemed happy, it was Sunday, and he said they had a

debate going on in the hall and all seemed to be getting along Ok.

 

Kind regards Sue

 

 

Sue Stolberger

Ruaha National Park

PO Box 369

IRINGA Tanzania

 

Tragic Fire at Idodi Secondary School

 

photos above taken on 25th August 2009 by Noelle Herzog (manager of Jongomero Camp)

Update 10th October 2009:

Six weeks ago, we had a tragedy at the Idodi Secondary school. A candle left burning in the girls dormitory lead to a massive fire, which claimed the lives of 12 girls. 7 were admitted to hospital, 2 were seriously injured. The dormitory housed 400 girls, and with only one exit for them to use, it became a terrifying experience. Sadly a couple of girls raced back into the fire to help their friends only to be consumed themselves. It was devastating for the school and community alike. Rob and myself attended the funeral, which was an extremely sobering event.

The fire became a national tragedy, with Government officials from Dar es Salaam attending, plus many hundreds of people from all walks of life. The girls were buried in the school grounds.

One cannot aptly portray the sadness and grief that was felt by all, but non more so than by the parents of the girls who had died. One young girl was weeping beside me, in her hand she clutched a plastic red rose, which was neatly wrapped in a piece of newspaper. A final gift for her beloved friend or sister.

I have taken time to inform you about this as I wanted first to know how best we could help. Many promises for new buildings were made on that day, however, things take time to materialize. As the school has been closed for some 3 weeks it wasnt possible to find out what exactly we can do to help. However Dr Dulle has recently been
participating with the Idodi Headmaster Mr Mlasu and I can report the following.

Dr Dulle has been several times to see the two girls that are still remaining in the hospital. He went again to see them on Wednesday with the Idodi headmaster, Mr Mlasu, and Mr Mwangosi the District education officer. The girls he says are doing very well, they are improving all the time and are being looked after well. He doesn't think they need to go to another hospital of a higher standard. The school has resumed classes, the girls are now housed in the boys dormitories and the boys are sleeping on the floor in the 2 buildings on the hill that have just been finished, but not in use yet. (the science lab and the new classrooms) . So far things are progressing slowly. The Government are taking their time in finding funds and the phone company Vodacom have not yet come forward with any of the promised money.

The Headmaster says, though he has been round to all the various people who pledged money, so far nothing is happening and he has no clear answer as to what will happen. Though, we are confidant that eventually the Government will give substantial help for the building, and in the interim many individuals are coming forward with money and help. There is still an awful lot needed.

Apparently 30 girls have not reported back. So far only 130 mattresses are available for the girls, (each student buys their own mattress at the onset of school) So the immediate needs are mattresses, bed sheets, beds, tin trunks and educational materials such as books and pens etc. for about 400 students. As you can
appreciate, many of these girls are form local farming families so the purchasing of necessary items a second time is often impossible. The community is presently working to remove the old buildings and the plan is to make 2 separate girls hostels. They are also trying to build toilet facilities near to the science labs for the boys to use, in the interim. It sounds a bit difficult and chaotic, but they are doing their best to continue with their studies.

Jongomero Camp is doing its best to raise more money for this urgent issue. Ruaha Park is also doing what it can both from TANAPA and many individuals at Park HQ. We
would be most grateful for any support you can give us. You can do this by wire transfer to the Ruaha Conservation Fund account details are below.

Thank you very much indeed for helping us at this time.

Best wishes, Sue

CRDB BANK LTD
IRINGA BRANCH,Tanzania
A/C Name: Ruaha Conservation Fund
A/C No: 01J1070956800
SWIFT:CORUTZTZ
Branch Code: 3508

 

Sue Stolberger
Ruaha National Park, PO Box 369 IRINGA, Tanzania

www.suestolberger.com
www.robertglen.com

 

Update June-August 2009:

The river is not looking too bad for this time of year, however, as per
usual, it has dropped significantly over a short period of time.

 
1st July 2009                                                                                                                       10th June 2009

13th July 2009

You can see how fast the river dropped from 10th June to 13th July, over a 5 week period. Just to remind you, the stone marker that I use is approximately 7 feet high from its base on the sand to the top of the rock.

I suspect we will see the same trend as last year, in that the river will continue to drop fairly fast until it reaches a shallow trickle and will stop altogether at the beginning of October when the rice growers start planting their seedlings.

This year, Ruaha Park received very poor rainfall, as a result the springs in the sand-rivers, and surrounding areas are mostly dry already. Therefore, the animals will face a big problem later on in the season. In fact, over the past few years due to the drying of the river, game viewing has really deteriorated from the end of September through to December. Previously, when the river was in better shape, these dry months were Ruahas' prime game viewing months.

6th August 2009

Although the actual level does not look so dramatically different you can see that the surrounding water in the channels in the foreground and near the banks has dried up alot. Further down stream where the river widens it is very obvious that the river has dried up quite significantly in the past 4 weeks.

Kind regards, Sue

Sue Stolberger
suestol@bushlink.co.tz

Update April 2009:

 

The Great Ruaha Riverbed February 2009



photo from near Rob's old camp near Jongomero - April 2009

Hello everyone,

This update on the Ruaha River is long over due, but I have been away.

As many of you know the Ruaha River was in a drastic state,it was
completely dry from OCTOBER 2008 right through to mid MARCH 2009. That
is five and a half months which is the longest dry period ever recorded.

It is true that generally, the rain in the immediate Ruaha park
catchment was extremely poor over much of the season. As a result many
of the small rivers such as the Jongomero,
Itiku, Mdonya,etc only flooded for very short periods, the water never
reaching the Ruaha River.
Thus, the Ruaha River remained completely dry until
Mid March. At which point the rainfall in Ruaha Park catchment improved
a
little giving the sand rivers enough to flood. thus the Ruaha was
'flowing' in short sections for only a few days at a time.

Finally the 'black water' from Usangu (Ihefu water) arrived
towards the end of March. Giving the river new life.

I would like to remind you that in the catchment proper,eg the rivers
flowing into the Usangu Basin, Mbarali, Ndembera, etc all of these
rivers and their upper catchment areas had extremely GOOD rainfall,
which was way ABOVE average.

These rivers were all flooding from Mid November right through to April.
That means that four and a half months of flood water from seven
rivers have largely been used by agriculture in
the Usangu basin.

Only in the final (5th) month of the rains did this
massive amount of water make its way down through the Giriama gap to
the Ruaha Park to the Mtera dam.

In normal years the flood water from Usangu reaches Ruaha Park in
February. (assuming that the rains start in mid December), Therefore,
please note that, as the rivers have been flooding since November the
water from Usangu should have reached Ruaha Park in Mid January this
year. But it didn't reach us until the END of MARCH.

I have attached photos taken from various locations in February 2009 and
a photo taken by Andrew Molinaro, (Jongomero Camp) a few days ago
on April 13th 2009.

The river is now flowing bank to bank. The location this photo was
taken is from Robs old camp. I know from experience that according to
what I see in the photo, the river must be reasonably high probably
covering the stone marker used at my camp. But judging from the colour
of the water it is not very deep so I doubt it will last at this height
for very much longer. I will guess it will start to go down by the
beginning of May.

I think we are all aware that the situation of the Ruaha River is now
critical. It is of National importance that we take measures to ensure
that the water from this life giving river sustains all its
stakeholders, the Ruaha Park, Mtera Dam, the fishermen there and
on down to the Rufiji basin developments. It is very possible to have
great agriculture in Usangu and still have the river flowing down to the
sea. All it will take is positive cooperation form all parties
concerned.

Thank you all for your hard work to make this become a reality.

Sue Stolberger
suestol@bushlink.co.tz

Update 10th February 2009:

Greetings from  a  very  beautiful Ruaha,  we are in the middle of

our rainy season, which to date hasn't been as much as we would hope.

Unfortunately the Great Ruaha River is still completely dry.  However

this

is due to irrigation disturbances up stream not from lack of

rainfall.

 

Our  village programs are  coming along well, thanks to the tireless

efforts of Dr Dulle.  This is the first year that we have embarked on

various new schemes. Now that the Environmental Center in Idodi

Secondary

School is up and running we are able to concentrate on the  Primary

school

children again plus the villages themselves.

 

In June I sent out an update showing our Environmental Day

celebrations, which was really successful and much enjoyed by all the

participants.  Part of the celebrations included giving prizes to the

top

3 students in the 7 primary schools that we support.  In addition to

the

books and geometry sets, the prize included  and over-night stay in

Ruaha

National Park.

 

So in July, these 18 students plus  6 teachers had their over-night

stay in the park.  It was a huge success.  The Parks were extremely

helpful and went several extra miles to make the stay memorable for

the students.  They had various special lectures, game drives and a  film

show in the evening.  All the students were thrilled by  the lions they

saw plus all the other animals.

 

The  previous week, we arranged for all the teachers  from the 7

schools to have an overnight stay in the park. (A total of 60

teachers, 30 on each week-end trip) I went to talk to them just

before they left to go back to the village.  They had all enjoyed the stay

and commented on, that not only was it good to see all the animals but

that they all felt 'refreshed' after a 2 day break from their normal

routines! Both these over night stays were held over the week -end so

asnot to interfere with school! We feel that if the teachers are

enthusiastic about the Park it will encourage them to be positive to

thechildren about the value of the environment.

 

In December we were able to take  530 Standard 6 students into the

park.  Dr Dulle collaborated with Mr Mwangosi, who is the Education

Officer for Idodi  Ward. This event is always a big high light for

the children.  It was spread over 5 days.  They left home early, so

as to make the most of the day with an early game drive to park HQ

where they had breakfast. They then went on an extended drive to

various areas, most of the children saw lions, and they all saw

elephants, giraffe and all the more 'normal' animals. Returning to HQ for

lunch and a lecture, after which they trundled back to the gate via the

hippo and croc pools and headed home in the late afternoon.  Everything

went well, most of the time, however one day the bus got stuck near

Mwagusi Camp, for almost 2 hours,  however the parks came along with the

tractor and managed to pull them out of the sand! I am sure it only added

to the adventure for the children.  But Dr Dulle and Mr Mwangosi have come

to the conclusion that next year, despite the much higher cost, a smaller

bus will be the better option.   We would like to take this opportunity to

thank the Ruaha Park staff for being so helpful and making these trips

such a success.   I have received letters  from all the schools thanking

us for making this trip possible.

 

On the 23rd December we held  our first EMI meeting for all villages (EMI

stands for Environmental teachers of the village).  Each of the 6 villages

have formed a committee incorporating, two teachers, two village officials

and two ordinary village residents.  These committees will be  monitoring

the environmental status of each village and its surrounding areas.  Eg,

starting a tree nursery, policing the illegal felling of trees for

charcoal, water management etc etc. This meeting was held at the Idodi

Environmental Center.  As it was the first meeting of its kind, much of

the time was taken up with deciding on how to operate the  new committee.

However on their return, each village has established  a tree nursery

atthe primary schools. We supplied seedlings and the equipment with which

to start this new venture.  They will meet quarterly each year to discuss

problems and find solutions for the environmental  issues that arise.

 

On the 27th December 2008 we hired the new film van from the Iringa

Regional Office.  Over the course of 7 days, we went to as many of

the villages as possible starting with Mlowa and ending with

Mahuninga. We showed our Wild Dog Film in Kiswahili, plus other

environmental films by Simon Trevor also in Kiswahili. The wild Dog

film was made especially for us by  Ben Please, The film aims at

highlighting the problems Wild Dogs face in rural areas.  Using Dr

Dulle as the spokes person the film interviews the local village

residents and finds out why  Wild Dogs are seen as a pest, then the

film interviews the Park wildlife guides for Jongomero Camp and

Mdonya Camp, who gave us the flip side of the coin explaining to us

why  Wild Dogs play an important role  in their work and why it is

important to protect them.  This film was a huge success, mainly

because the audience recognized many of the key people in the film!

However, we think that the message got across well as everyone

certainly listened attentively!  We hope to show more films over the

course of this year at regular intervals. Dr Dulle works closely with

the

HIV programs that are active in our area, and so we hope to team up

with

them and share the costs of hiring the van for films.  We think that

a

combination of films about HIV followed by an environmental one will

be

most helpful to  the communities at large.

 

Jongomero Camp continues to sponsor 9 students in the Idodi

Secondary School, plus helping 25 poor families with the uniforms and

books needed for Primary school. We also  arranged for 2 wheel-chairs

to

be made on their behalf.  The two men who received these chairs are

extremely delighted as they are now able to extend their activities a

great deal.   We thank Jongomero  for  with their valuable support.

 

Finally I would like to say that all of the above programs have been

made

possilbe by the extreme generoisty of Mr Harry Vlek  and Ans de

Winter of

the Netherlands. We are unable to thank them adequately for their

extraordinary support

Update 27th October 2008:

Hello from Ruaha,

 

I am unable to supply photos this time but will send some as soon as

I am near an internet facility.

 

However the news is not good.  As I  anticipated, the river has

indeed dried up, a couple of weeks ago..  It no longer flows.

 

The reason for this is, as we all know,  the rice growers start

flooding their seedling beds at this time for rice.

 

I  would be really grateful if someone could inform us why it is so

important that the seedlings are started at the height of the dry

season?  This seems totally in against all environmental efforts to

restore flow during the dry season.

 

In my humble opinion I think it would make far more sense if the

seedlings were not planted until the END of November, a mere 6 weeks

later. This is the critical time for the Park to have water in the

river.   In this way the river would continue to flow for maximum

time and the rain should have almost begun by then. Ideally the

seedlings should not be planted until the onset of the rains.

 

I cant believe that 6 weeks makes a huge difference to the financial

returns of the rice growers.  But it would make a HUGE difference to

the park and may even be a sufficient solution to restoring the

perennial flow of the GRR. 

Many thanks and kind regards

Sue

suestol@bushlink.co.tz

September 2008

Hello from Ruaha Park, above are the latest photos showing the status of the river.

I am happy to say that for this time of year the flow is looking better than usual. The river is still flowing past the gate some 40km down
stream of these photos.

Let us hope that it continues to flow for another few months at this level.
Traditionally it is about this time of year that the river drops drastically and stops flowing by the 1st of october. We shall see!

Kind regards Sue

Sue Stolberger
suestol@bushlink.co.tz

Jun 2008

WORLD ENVIRONMENTAL DAY AT IDODI

RUAHA UPDATE - June 2008

Great Ruaha River June 2008 update.

As you can see the river has dropped dramatically in the past 2 months. I estimate it to have dropped by about 5 feet. The depth at the deepest points in this section of the river on the 12th June, would be no more than 2 and a half to three feet deep. If you look at the final picture, though it looks like a lovely river right across, it is deceptive, you can see the colour of the sand showing through, indicating the river is generally very shallow. About 6 inches in most places.

 
Ruaha River on 1st June 2008

  
Ruaha River on 5th June 2008

  
Ruaha River 12th June 2008

Please also compare carefully the 6 pictures, 2 of them were taken on the 1st of June 2 on the 6th June and the other 2 were taken on the 12th of June. I have put the pictures with different dates side by side for easy reference. You can see that in 12 short days the river has dropped by about 6 inches.

This means that more and more water is being channeled off daily for irrigation purposes.

Kind regards Sue
Sue Stolberger
suestol@bushlink.co.tz

RUAHA UPDATE - 22.04.2008

The Ruaha Park Extension

Usangu Wetland - rivers entering wetland July 2007

I am delighted to be able to tell you that the Ruaha Park has now been
officially extended to include the Usangu Game Reserve plus
additional land to the south and west. Ruaha is now the largest park in
Africa, covering an area of over 22,000sq.Km.

In recent years the Ruaha River has been drying up during the dry season
due to massive off-takes for irrigation purposes.

As you may know, the catchment area for the Great Ruaha River is in the
Usangu Plains, which is an extremely
important water resource for Tanzania. It feeds the hydro dams of Mtera
and Kidatu, plus being the focal point of Ruaha Park and supporting many
lives along its course to the Rufiji Delta. The Tanzanian Government has
to be congratulated for taking these difficult, but important steps in
conserving its precious water reserves.

However, this is only part of the problem, it is now more important than
ever to implement effective measures in curbing the massive over-use of
water which has seriously depleted the Ruahas flow during the wet
season and which completely destroys the river during the dry season.

I understand that there are plans in place to address this problem. I
wish the Government and the Stakeholders every success in this important
issue.

Sue Stolberger
suestol@bushlink.co.tz

RUAHA UPDATE - March 2008

The Ruaha River is looking great, a huge improvement since my update in
January 08.

 

After a bad start with obvious massive off-takes in the catchment area,
rains have been exceptionally good this year, so the river in Ruaha
Park is looking wonderful.

 

However, please note the stone which is just visible. I have always
used this as the level 'marker'. It is about a foot out of the water.
Ideally this marker should not be showing. In the early 1990's this rock
was always covered from January through to the end of April.

The other important and very excting news is that the Government has
been working hard to try to protect this important water source, and as
a result the Ruaha National Park has been extended to include the Usangu
Wetland, which will hopefully help to keep Ruaha 'flowing' throughout
the dry season.
The extension has been approved by Parliament however, we are still
waiting for the President to sign the documents.

We are thrilled by this very positive move towards conserving a very
important National resource.

I have also included a scenic view of the river near Msembe, HQ. I am
sure you will all agree that Ruaha is looking magnificent.

Sue Stolberger
suestol@bushlink.co.tz

RUAHA CONSERVATION FUND UPDATE - January 2008

 

IDODI ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER

Our main focus for 2007 was to get the Idodi Environmental Center up and running. It was an uphill struggle with costs rising rapidly due to the increase in the fuel prices we were constantly short of the necessary funds, but one way or another we managed!

We had a couple of fabulous donations one from Mr. Roy Disney, plus Mr. Harry Vlek. We were extremely grateful for these. We also received numerous small donations from many individuals over the course of the past 2 years. We are extremely grateful to you all. Rob and I footed the bill for the rest which was tricky !!

We are deeply indebted to Dr Dulle, who was the project coordinator, without him nothing would have been accomplished. He saw to all the buying of the materials, paying of wages, transporting the goods, etc, and sorting out many of the problems that were encountered along the way.

Installing the books and equipment was another time consuming task, we are deeply grateful to Liz and Jobst De Leyser for helping us organize the curtains, electrical wiring, and advising us on which ‘fundis” to use for these important jobs.

The books for the library so far have all come from a new UK based NGO called ‘Books 4 Tanzania” www.books4etanzania.org.uk We are therefore deeply grateful to ‘Mamma Angela” as she is fondly referred to by the students of Idodi Secondary School. However we are in desperate need of more BOOKS! Donations are welcome.

The opening ceremony was a joyous occasion, (please see the separate update for this).
However we were very sorry that Fiona Oates, was unable to be with us for the big day. Fiona was the architect for the Center she was in Australia at the time.

The center is now up and running and being used on a daily basis by the school and by the community when needed.

JONGOMERO CAMP

We are delighted by the energetic, fund raising activities from Jongomero Camp. Last year they initiated a scheme for sponsoring 25 orphaned children to the primary schools and 5 students for 4 years at the Idodi Secondary School. In addition to this on-going sponsorship we have received from them $1,400. This money has been ear-marked for the purchase of tricycles, for 5 disabled persons in the villages. Ruaha Conservation Fund is initiating a new program aimed at improving the livelihood for people with disabilities within the Idodi ward. We are extremely grateful to Greg and Claire Du Toit, the managers of Jongomero Camp, for their valuable efforts in raising awareness and funds for our Village programs. We have received a total amount of approx $4,700.00 from them this year so far. They said:-

“We hope that the above funding will help the community and we are continuing to try and raise funds. In an effort to further collect funds form our international guests, we have added pictures of the community and school into our guest room folders”

Thank you Greg and Claire!

DONATION

We have received yet another generous donation of $10,000 from Mr. Harry Vlek and Ans de Winter. We have earmarked these funds to go towards several important areas. A large portion will
go towards building a dinning facility for the school and a smaller portion to go towards equipping the science Laboratory, the school have managed to raise some money from parents to build the labs which are in progress now. We hope also to use some of these funds for school trips to the Ruaha National Park. These outings are the absolute highlight for the children. There is never enough funding to do justice to the excitement and enthusiasm that surrounds these trips. I was told by a teacher that the kids never sleep the night before their departure as they are so excited about the adventure the next day!

EMI

We hope to concentrate on helping EMI with their programs this year as we were unable to assist them last year, due to the pressure for funds from the Environmental Center.

Finally, Rob, Dr Dulle and myself would like to thank all of you for your time and efforts in helping us with our programs. I would like to make a special mention of the members of my Mothers’ ‘Garden Club,’ in Schull, Co. Cork Ireland, for their donation of 300Euros, every little bit helps us achieve our goals.

RUAHA UPDATE - May 2007

  
The Great Ruaha River near Sue's old camp - lhs March 2007 - rhs April 2007

THE GREAT RUAHA RIVER
As you know Tanzania received very heavy rains this season. Which of course is fantastic news. Mtera Dam went from its lowest level ever, to over-flowing in a matter of a few weeks only!

The picture above of the river in April 07, when compared to the one taken a month earlier, (March 07) shows that, despite the good rainfall the river is dropping fast. This indicates that there is a massive off-take of water going on up stream from RNP.

We hope that this constant drop in flow level will ease off soon?

I am delighted to see that my old camp has returned to the 'wild'. When we went to have a look last month, the place was festooned with daisies, and morning glory flowers... it was very beautiful. I was very happy to see it like this. It looked as though Romeo 'my Giraffe' and Tembo the friendly ellie were still happily using the camp as the tell-tail footprints of only one Giraffe and one Ellie were obvious!. No sign of the mongooses but then they are usually busy with babies at this time of year. The attached photos show how it looks now.

Best wishes Sue

IDODI 2006

Our apologies for taking so long in updating you on the developments of our Environmental Center. It really is coming along well now as I'm sure you will see by the attached pictures. We suffered a series of set-backs earlier this year due to the heavy rains we 'enjoyed' this season. Plus we had a minor 'blip' with the construction of the roof, which has now been resolved. However we are thrilled by the way it is all taking shape.

The school and local communities are very excited about this new facility that they see emerging and we receive many positive comments on how much this center will be useful to all.

Thank you so much for your interest and support

With best wishes Sue and Rob

MDONYA CAMP CONTINUES TO GIVE GREAT SUPPORT - 05th April 2006 

WILD DOG PROGRAM update 5th April 2006

Things have gone a bit quiet on this front as these past few months we have been busy taking footage for a Wild Dog video which our good friend Ben Please of the Brock Initiative is busy working on this moment.

We are making a film in Kiswahili (with English sub-titles) to help illustrate to the villages, in the peripheral areas of the Park, that although they face problems with the Wild Dogs through stock losses, Wild Dogs are indeed a precious commodity that should be looked after and preserved.

This has been a great team effort with both the folk living in the villages outside the Park, and Guides and Park authorities. We have had great enthusiasm from everyone on this program and we hope that the film will be ready for viewing in the near future.

In addition to this, Dr Dulle has had feed back from his questionnaires, with records of Dog sightings in areas we did not previously think would still have these magnificent creatures.

We will keep you posted!

Update 1st February 2006

on Environmental and Educational programs in the area surrounding the Ruaha conservation area. -

Update RUAHA RIVER 16TH JANUARY 2006

Ruaha and indeed much of southern Tanzania has been suffering a drought, the rain is very late. However, thankfully on the evening of the 11th Jan 2006 after local wide-spread, heavy rain along the Ruaha River the river flowed.

This 'flow' continues, however it is a small ribbon of water approximately 4ft wide, which is similar to the 'flow' a couple of weeks prior to the river drying up.

The river has been dry this season (2005-2006) for a total of 75 days as opposed to last year's (2004-2005) all time record of being dry for only 30 days.

The rain continues but only in light showers here and there. It is possible that the river will dry up again soon.


RUAHA CONSERVATION FUND - EMI

On the 1st of January 2006 which is the national tree planting day in Tanzania, EMI had organized a grand tree planting ceremony. This was to be the day to plant out the 30,000 tree seedlings which EMI had grown for the Idodi Village people and the schools.

Officials from Iringa District had been invited to attend, and there was a huge turn out from the local community.
Mdonya Old River Camp also sent a delegation of guests to attend the ceremony, the event was enjoyed by all.
It was said that the District Officials were very impressed and heartened to see how many trees had been raised and how well the event had been organized.

However, there was an overall agreement that only a few 'token' trees would be planted on this day as the lack of rain was so serious it would not be wise to plant the young trees at this time. When the rain starts in earnest the rest of the 29,950 trees will be planted!


WILD DOG PROGRAM

Dr Dulle was delighted to receive an illustrated guide-sheet in colour, depicting the differences between Wild Dogs, Jackals and Hyenas in Kiswahili. Several hundred copies of this information sheet have been laminated and distributed to the villagers.

One of the problems encountered is that many village people are not sure of the differences between these predators and so this will avoid much confusion in the gathering of data on the Wild Dogs on village land.

This gift was very kindly designed and given by Pietro Luraschi, Manager of Mdonya Old River Camp.

Sue Stolberger
Ruaha National Park

Sue Stolberger
Ruaha National Park
PO Box 369
IRINGA Tanzania

www.suestolberger.com
www.robertglen.com