tibwilitibwili
Senior Member
- Sep 12, 2006
- 181
- 10
EXPERIMENTS on rainmaking technology in the country have stalled due to lack of funding, Minister of State in the Vice Presidents Office (Environment), Dr Batilda Buriani, said today. Dr Buriani said the project needed about 1bn/- for the trials which were to be carried out in areas such as Usangu Valley in Mbeya region.
She, however, said the project was still viable. The government was granted rainmaking patent rights by King Bhumibol of Thailand during former Premier Edward Lowassas trip to that country in September 2006. She also said Tanzania was privileged to be among a few African countries to get the patent right which other countries like Kenya had been wishing to have to no avail.
It cannot be exaggerated to say that Tanzania could still experiment the technology so as to establish whether the country can benefit out of it before ruling out that it is not useful as some people hastily conclude, she explained. Commenting on the technology, the minister said cloud seeding was a long-practised technology.
It uses rockets, planes, cannons or ground generators to fire particles, usually silver iodide, into clouds to encourage water vapour to gather round them and eventually fall as rain. Then the fired droplets of liquid below freezing unite into snow and melt as they fall. The heat released as the droplets freeze boosts updrafts, which pull more moist air into the cloud, Dr Burian added.
Sources in the Prime Ministers Office said the government had extended an invitation to the Kasertet Institute rain makers to come to Tanzania in October, last year to fill the drying dam but the cost stood at 1bn/- which could not be obtained then. When visiting Thailand, the Tanzania delegation was impressed by the Kings rain makers who told them that they were capable of making rain that could fill to the brims the hydro power generation dam at Mtera in Iringa.
History has different types or categories of rainmakers and hence different methods of rain making, but scientists call the power of nature as the omnipotent source of rain. This process, which has been prevalent for millions of years and remains the most popular, has been employed by the entire human civilisation for hundreds of thousands of generations.
Natural rainmaking has been a smooth ongoing process for most of the past period, but as human activities started to inflict serious effects on the environment, man started to borrow the aid of science for rainmaking. Reports show that Thailand has been experimenting the technology for over 40 years and it took them too long to be granted the patent by US.
Source: Daily News
She, however, said the project was still viable. The government was granted rainmaking patent rights by King Bhumibol of Thailand during former Premier Edward Lowassas trip to that country in September 2006. She also said Tanzania was privileged to be among a few African countries to get the patent right which other countries like Kenya had been wishing to have to no avail.
It cannot be exaggerated to say that Tanzania could still experiment the technology so as to establish whether the country can benefit out of it before ruling out that it is not useful as some people hastily conclude, she explained. Commenting on the technology, the minister said cloud seeding was a long-practised technology.
It uses rockets, planes, cannons or ground generators to fire particles, usually silver iodide, into clouds to encourage water vapour to gather round them and eventually fall as rain. Then the fired droplets of liquid below freezing unite into snow and melt as they fall. The heat released as the droplets freeze boosts updrafts, which pull more moist air into the cloud, Dr Burian added.
Sources in the Prime Ministers Office said the government had extended an invitation to the Kasertet Institute rain makers to come to Tanzania in October, last year to fill the drying dam but the cost stood at 1bn/- which could not be obtained then. When visiting Thailand, the Tanzania delegation was impressed by the Kings rain makers who told them that they were capable of making rain that could fill to the brims the hydro power generation dam at Mtera in Iringa.
History has different types or categories of rainmakers and hence different methods of rain making, but scientists call the power of nature as the omnipotent source of rain. This process, which has been prevalent for millions of years and remains the most popular, has been employed by the entire human civilisation for hundreds of thousands of generations.
Natural rainmaking has been a smooth ongoing process for most of the past period, but as human activities started to inflict serious effects on the environment, man started to borrow the aid of science for rainmaking. Reports show that Thailand has been experimenting the technology for over 40 years and it took them too long to be granted the patent by US.
Source: Daily News
