Dar won't be split into three regions - Minister

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Aggrey Mwanri


The government has said that dividing Dar es Salaam into three independent regions will not be possible because the three districts do not meet the criteria.
Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office (Regional Administration and Local Governments) Aggrey Mwanri told the National Assembly yesterday that Temeke, Ilala and Kinondoni districts were not qualified to become regions.
Temeke Member of Parliament Abbas Mtemvu (CCM) wanted to know if the government was aware that dividing Dar es Salaam would facilitate the provision of social services to people.

Mwanri said the assessment done on the three districts proved that they had not qualified, mentioning some of the criteria as having an area of over 20,000 square kilometres, a region to have at least four districts and 15 divisions, 45 wards and 150 villages.

He said other criteria included having a population of not less than 100,000 people and a geographical location, which denied people from accessing social services like an area surrounded by mountains, rivers, forests, not having proper infrastructure, lack of boreholes, capability of the government to establish such regions and the people to contribute for the establishment of the new regions.

He also said the location must have 3 per cent of the total country population, according to the national census.

He noted that it was costly to establish a region since it took a minimum of 5bn/- for a district.

“Now if we want all the three districts to become regions, each will have four districts. That means 12 districts, which will cost us 60bn/-,” Mwanri explained.
The deputy minister said although the three districts did have high number of people, they were still far from meeting the criteria of becoming regions.