For those who are cultivators life is equally tough with agriculture possible only along the Ruvu river in the eastern part of the district. The Ruvu river, fed by the snows of Kilimanjaro, creates an incongruous belt of rich green, filled with hippo and crocodiles, as it flows southwards and eastwards through these semi-arid plains. The impact of the drought goes beyond the obvious problems of lack of food and water. East Coast fever, a parasitical disease of cattle, is on the rise. Elsewhere development projects are held up as people turn their attention to survival.
Nobody has any spare cash.
Sales of tree seedlings from the Womens Group nursery at Landenai have dropped, and the newly formed women s income generation group at Ruvu-Remit have been unable to get business off the ground because nobody is buying anything at the moment. In the hills surrounding Landenai, some Masai pastoralists have turned to scrabbling in the dirt for gemstones, alongside miners from outside. They earn 1000 Tanzanian shillings for 1 gram of gemstones. A 20 litre container of water currently fetches 300 shillings at the camp. Which puts everything into perspective.