MIUNDO MBINU

ECONOMIC INFRASTRUCTURE

Ilemela Constituency is served with relatively satisfactory infrastructure such as air transport, marine transport, road network, communication network, energy etc. It is one of the centres where all communications lines converge in the Lake-zone.

ROAD NETWORK

Ilemela’s total road network is 457.1 km, of which 14 km are tarmac roads, 1.1km concrete pavement road, 0.5km stone pavement roads, 74.58km  gravel roads, and 367.2km of earth roads. While The Ministry of Works and Infrastructure is responsible for overall policy, road building and maintenance is the responsibility of Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS) as well as Local Government Authorities.

The tarmac roads can handle vehicles with weight not exceeding 56 tons while the gravel roads can handle up to 10 tone vehicles without problems.

 

MARINE TRANSPORT

The Constituency is also connected to other part of Lake Zone Regions and neighboring countries of Kenya and Uganda by Marine transport, which also connects it to other Lake zone  regional capitals of Bukoba and Musoma. It has no major ports.

There are several small docking facilities owned by individuals and individual companies who own small and medium sized boats. These include Nyehunge, Kipeja and Kitana docking facilities.

There is also a boat assembling facility at Pasiansi in Ilemela district known as Pansiasi Boat Yard. Small boats, canoes and dhows owned by individuals, also dominate transport in the Lake Victoria. They are used to carry people’s commodities such as agricultural produces and for fishing. 

 

AIR TRANSPORT

Ilemela’s main airport is Mwanza airport which is located in Ilemela ward. About 35 to 40 aircraft shuttle at the single airport daily. The aircrafts frequenting the airport include those of passenger airlines such as ATCL,Precision Air, Fast jet and hired shuttle planes to various destinations including Nairobi.

There are also Cargo aircrafts landing at the airport weekly. The Cargo planes mainly come to carry fish fillet to Europe, the Middle East and other places of the world.

AIRPORT CAPACITY.

The airport has runways which can handle airplanes with weight up to 180 tons. The airport has two main good runways. The first one with 3.3 km while the second has 3.0 km only.

The big aircrafts landing at the airport include Boeing 737. The airport is currently under expansion. The expansion work is being carried out by the Contractor from China and will include building a modern passenger lounge that will accommodate one million passengers annually, elongate the runway by 500 meters, expand and rehabilitate the control tower, cargo and hangar building to accommodate more planes.

 

 

COMMUNICATION NETWORK

Because of its economic importance, The Constituency is reasonably endowed with good communication infrastructure to serve the Lake-zone regions. In spite of the good transport system, there are mobile networks operated by Mobile companies like VODACOM, TIGO, ZANTEL, TTCL, and AIRTEL.

RADIO STATIONS

There are various local radio stations situated within the Constituency. These include the two major radio stations of Radio Free Africa and Kiss FM, both owned by Sahara Media Group. However there are number of radio stations which are situated outside the Constituency but they are accessible in the Constituency. These include RADIO SAUT, CITY FM, AFYA RADIO, PASSION FM, RADIO ONE, EAST AFRICA RADIO, CLOUDS FM, TBC TAIFA, RADIO UHURU, and MAGIC FM.                 

TV STATIONS:

There is only one TV Station situated within the Constituency i.e Star – TV owned also by Sahara Media Group that started to operate since 2000. The TV broadcast coverage is 90% in Mwanza region. However other TV stations operating outside the Constituency are accessible within the Constituency. These stations include TBC 1, ITV, EATV, CHANNEL 10, DTV, CLOUDS TV, CAPITAL TV, ATN, and BARMEDAS TV.

 NEWS PAPERS

Ilemela Constituency population has access to the following newspapers available daily and few weekly supplies. These include: - Uhuru, Mzalendo, Daily news, Sunday news, Nipashe, The guardian, Mwananchi, The African, East African, Majira, Mtanzania, Tanzania Daima, Spoti, Champion, Uwazi, Amani, Risasi, Ijumaa, Express, Nyakati, Msemakweli, Rai, Sports,  Dimba, Dira, The family mirror,  Sunday nation, Daily nation, Standard, Kiu, Ijumaa and Mzawa.

 ENERGY

Source of energy utilized in Ilemela Constituency for both industrial and domestic use emanate from various sources such as hydro and thermal electricity, firewood, gas, petrol and kerosene. Almost the entire population residing in the rural areas depends on firewood/charcoal as their main source of power

 ELECTRICITY

TANESCO is the principal supplier of electricity in the Constituency as it is in all Mwanza region. The electricity used comes from the National Grid System. The IC is connected to the National Grid system.

 FUEL WOOD

The dominant source of energy used for domestic consumption is fuel wood. The main use for fuel wood has been cooking and heating. Even where electricity is available to a household it is rarely used for anything else except lighting and entertainment. For urban areas, fuel wood normally takes the form of charcoal while in rural areas firewood is preferred. Firewood is not cheap and women spend a lot of time in search of fire wood. Alternatives to fuel wood have better be found soon if the Ilemela forests are to be saved from depletion.