Babati District Council (BDC) is one of the seven Council’s of Manyara Region, Babati District Council was established as a result of dividing the Hanang’ District into two districts of Babati and Hanang’ and was officially documented in the Government Official Gazette No. 403 of the 1st October, 1985.It became autonomous in July 1986 as District Council. In September 2004 Babati District Council was again divided into two Councils to form Babati District Council and Babati Town Council.
Geographical location:
Babati District Council and Babati Town Council form Babati District. Babati District Council lies between the latitude 30 - 50 south of the Equator and longitude 350 - 370 east of Greenwich.
Frontiers
Neighbouring districts are Monduli in the North, Karatu in the North-West, Mbulu in the West, Hanang’ in the South-West, Kondoa in the South and Simanjiro in the East.
Area
Babati District Council has an area of 5,608 square kilometres, which is equal to 92.4% of the total area of 6,069 square kilometres of Babati District.
Topography
The topography is characterized by undulating land, spotted with hills and mountains. It forms part of the Great Rift Valley, where Dabil - Dareda escarpment divides the district into two levels with difference range of about 1,500 meters. The lower flat lands lies between Lake Babati and Lake Manyara while the upper land is the Ufana, Bashnet and Magara escarpment. The altitude ranges from 950 meters to 2,450 meters above mean sea level.
Administrative Units
Administratively, Babati District Council has 4 Divisions, 25 Wards,102 Villages and 408 Sub-villages (Vitongoji). There are 34 Councillors of which 25 are elected from their Wards and 8 are nominated through special seats for women and the Council has 1 Member of Parliament who is also a Councillor by virtue of his position. Babati District Council has 13 Departments and 6 units.
The Council administrative structure starts at hamlet (Sub village) level. At the Village level, there is a Village government, Village assembly which meets once after every three months and 3 Standing Committees namely the Village Council, Education, Health and Water Committee and Economic Services, Works and Environment Committee which meet every month. The Village assembly is the supreme final decision making body at Village level of which the elected Village Chairperson is a Political leader and the Village Executive Officer is a Secretary to the Village Council.
At the Ward level, there is Ward Development Committee (WDC) led by the Ward Councillor and the Ward Executive Officer (WEO) is the Secretary. WDC meets at least once every three months.
At the District level, there is the Full Council which is the supreme decision making body of the Council. There are 3 standing Committees which are Finance, Administration and Planning Committee, Education, Health and Water Committee, Economic Services and Works and Environmental Committee. Also there exists Council Multisectoral AIDS Committee (CMAC). Both Full Council and Committee receive technical advice from the Council Management Team which is under the Chairmanship of the District Executive Director.
Staffing levels:
Babati District Council has a total staffs of 2,715 and a deficit of 684 staffs. Manning levels of council staffs according to departments as shown in table 1 below:
Ethnicity
The major ethnic groups are the Iraq (more than 40%), Gorowa (35%) and Mbugwe (20%) and others (5%). Mainly in small towns there are also few people of other ethnic groups who migrated to the district from other parts of the country.
Climatic Conditions
Rainfall distribution is characterized by the topography of the area. It ranges from 500mm to 2000mm per annum. Generally precipitation follows a bimodal pattern with long rains (Masika) and short rains (Vuli). The short rain season begins from October to December and the long rain season from February to May. Average temperatures range from 10°C to 25°C. It is colder in the highlands around Bashnet and warmer in the lowlands between Magugu and Minjingu. Hot months are September, October and November and cool months are May, June and July
The lowlands vegetation is dominated by savannah and woodlands with scattered trees and bushes. The natural vegetation in the highlands is mainly forests and wood / bush land in the escarpment.
Most of soils are of volcanic origin and range from sand-loam to clay-alluvial soils.
Population Characteristics
According to the Population Census of 26th August, 2012 the Council revealed to have a total Population of 312,392 of which 158,804 are males and 153,588 are female. In year 2016 the Council is approximately to have a total Population of 358,612 of which 182,300 are males and 176,312 are females with an annual growth rate of 3.6%.
Government and Non Governmental Organizations/Agencencies
Government and Non Governmental Organizations/Agencies that deliver services in Babati District Council are Electricity Company (TANESCO), NMB, NBC, TPB AND CRDB Banks, Phone Companies: TTCL, Vodacom, Airtel, Tigo and Zantel, Tanzania Postal Company, NSSF, Insurance, Small Industry Company (SIDO), Sokoine University of Agriculture, Open University, TPRI, Selian, MAT-Tengeru, MATI-Ilonga, Manyara and Tarangire National animal conservations, TOSCI, Non Governmental Agencies of FARM AFRICA, FIDE Trust, IATC – Bacho, GIYEDO, SPIDERS, AFNET, Faida Mali, World Vision, different Religion Agencies, Food and Industry items. The Council has connected with different transport Companies in and outside of Manyara Region.
