Masasi District

Masasi is a medium-sized county town with about 40,000 inhabitants in southern Tanzania in the south west of the Mtwara region on the border with Mozambique. It is situated between high hills in the otherwise flat countryside. The highest mountain ( Masasi Hill ) rises about 350 meters high and is a nature reserve.

Infrastructure

Masasi is a regional transport hub. It crossed the highway from the Liwale District in the north to the city of Nachingwea on the Makonde Plateau in the south-east Masasis with the major road from Mtwara to the coast to Tunduru and continue to Songea and Malawi in the west. The road is paved from Mtwara to Masasi currently, but will be expanded in the coming years as Highway to Lake Malawi. In addition, in the southwest of the Unity Bridge will be built as the first direct road link between Tanzania and Mozambique, which Masasi is strongly recover over the next few years. Also the Masasi airport is to be supplied at higher validity and served by the airline Precision Air several times a week.

Masasi has a relatively stable power supply with a diesel power plant. The power supply is usually only interrupted when due to high oil prices or washed up roads fails the diesel supply from Mtwara.

Although the hospital in Masasi does not correspond to Western standards, but it is important for the whole surrounding area and relatively well equipped.

Population

The population is made up of Bantu, the largest group, the strain of Wao. The majority of the population is Christian and Moslem. To the east of the city is a major Anglican Convent, the Catholic parish church is the center of the largest community of the city.

Economy / Agriculture

The city and its surrounding areas are marked next to the cultivation of maize, bananas, coconuts and tomatoes for their own needs strong by the Kashewnuss plantations. They form the main source of income of the city, even if the Kashewnüsse December-February on winding middlemen -way first from the villages to Masasi, then with large trucks to Mtwara and from there be shipped to India. Although the idea of the World Bank to build a Kashewnuss factory and establish good and was initially. The factory runs but from liquidity problems and because of nepotism only a few months a year and thus can not exploit its potential. In the Kashewnuss factory about 300 people could find a permanent position, so that the factory is by far the largest and most important employers in the city and would be a significant development step would mean.

A high potential makes about the craft. Nationally famous are the basket weavers in the western environs and the wood sculptor at Ndanda who make the famous Makonde carvings. In addition, there is a pronounced and carpenters' tradition.

In 2001, local civil society organizations have joined forces and founded the " Masasi NGO Network" ( MANGONET ). The now 20 organizations working in different fields such as agriculture, education, economic development, human rights and environmental protection and has set itself the goal together to promote the development of their city and in the group Masasi and take you through civic engagement into their own hands.