Former Tanzania PM ready for shown down with environmental groups over Serengeti road

(eTN) – Veteran politician Edward Lowassa, former prime minister of Tanzania seeking re-election, has taken to making statements against critics of the proposed road across the Serengeti.

Mr. Lowassa told the assembled crowds that the value of people was not comparable with the value of animals, which needs no social services or welfare, while humans do. He vowed to team up with supporters of the road project to make sure the road was constructed irrespective of its impact on the migration patterns of the big wildebeest and zebra herds. Lowassa said he was ready for a “showdown with environmental and conservation groups.”

The former prime minister accused opponents of the routing of the road of having only the welfare of animals in mind and neglecting the needs of humans, in particular his constituents, winding up the sentiments by claiming that the proposed road would have no impact on the animals but open up the area for commerce and trade.

Lowassa was also quoted as having said that environmentalists and conservationists generally value animals more than the Tanzanian people, a claim hard to sustain considering the support development partners and donors have extended to a large number of projects benefitting the region’s inhabitants alongside also caring for the conservation of the parks and biodiversity.