THE parliamentary HIV\AIDS Affairs committee has added its voice to growing calls for alcohol in sachets to be banned countrywide as one way of keeping the nation’s youth in check amid increasingly serious economic problems and liquidity tightness. Meeting here over the weekend, committee members pressed the government to outlaw the production, importation and selling of all alcohol beverages in packets, saying they are too cheap, too easily available, and thus have the capacity to destroy the young generation in the long run. Among other things, they suggested that such a move would help reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS among youths.
“HIV/AIDS and (narcotic) drugs are still a big challenge among youths in the country, which means there is a big need to ban cheap alcohol that can only promote promiscuity,” committee chairperson Faustine Ndugulile observed.
He further suggested that if the authorities consider a complete ban on sachet alcohol not feasible due to its substantial contribution to government revenue, at least the package should be changed to make it more expensive and therefore out of reach for most youngsters.
Ndugulile, who is the legislator for Kigamboni constituency, noted that most of the sachet alcohol currently on the market is affordable to even schoolchildren, and are actually fake. He said it would be better to pack the intoxicating drinks in bottles and slap higher prices on them, as an effective deterrent.
The committee chairman also warned that if no action is taken to contain the current situation, youths in major towns are in danger of becoming full-fledged drunkards.
It has long been established that consumption of alcohol sold in sachets is becoming a major problem among Tanzanian youth, including students, in terms of both health and ability to socialize, since the quality of most of these drinks remains uncertified.
Thousands of these beverages are feared to be on sale across the country. With reports saying they are being produced underground and sold off in the disguise of popular legal brands like Konyagi and Smirnoff.
In November last year, the government announced a nationwide crackdown on illegal distilleries for such drinks, as well as licensed alcohol manufacturers suspected to be engaged in massive tax evasion.
The announcement was made by the deputy minister for Health, Community Development, Gender, the Elderly and Children, Dr Hamisi Kigwangalla, after police in Dar es Salaam busted one illegal distillery plant in the city’s Sinza suburb. The raid on the fake Sinza distillery impounded dozens of boxes of bootleg alcohol in bottles and sachets.
The distillery is believed to have been supplying scores of wholesale liquor stores, retail shops, bars and hotels in the neighbourhood and across Dar es Salaam with its fake alcohol products. At least 67 people were reportedly apprehended in the ensuing crackdown.
According to Maswa MP Stanslaus Ngongo - a member of the Bunge committee - young, jobless Tanzanians are increasingly drowning their frustrations in cheap fake liquor, a trend that will increasingly reduce the nation’s reserves of able-bodied workers.
Ngongo called on the government to join other African countries like Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Malawi and Senegal that have banned the sale and production of alcohol in sachets in recent years.
According to a 2013 survey conducted by the health ministry, an estimated 3.6 million Tanzanian men and 1.7 million women tend to drink alcohol excessively.
That is more than 10 per cent of the county's population of approximately 45 million, though the government tends to view alcohol consumption as an individual lifestyle choice.
Research conducted by Muhimbili Hospital’s department of psychiatry and mental health in 2013 suggests that almost 50 percent of recorded cases of mental illness in the country are linked to alcohol and drug abuse.
The same research argued that even though alcohol abuse is a serious threat to public health, Tanzania lacks an effective strategy to tackle the problem as manufacturers of alcoholic beverages take advantage of government inaction by launching aggressive marketing campaigns to promote their products, which can cause harm.
'Mbeya city council turns school laboratories into classrooms'
The city’s, education officer Lidia Helbert named the schools as Uyole, Sinde and Mwakibete saying construction of classrooms has not been completed.
She said earlier about 352 pupils in the city were facing the risk of delaying to start their studies due to lack of classrooms and the number decreased to 214 after three schools completed construction of classrooms.
She named the schools that have completed construction of classrooms as Mponje, Itezi and Uyole and have accommodated 138 pupils.
“After a directive by the RC that all pupils should report to school at the same time, we decided to change the use of laboratories to classrooms, especially in rooms that were not fitted with equipment,” she said.
Mbeya Regional Commissioner Amos Makalla hailed the city council, saying the move will not affect studies because the classrooms will be used for 16 days only
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