Mpanda is a city in
Katavi Region
Katavi Region (''Mkoa wa Katavi'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Estonia. Kagera Region is bordered to ...
of Tanzania, East Africa with a
postcode
A postal code (also known locally in various English-speaking countries throughout the world as a postcode, post code, PIN or ZIP Code) is a series of letters or digits or both, sometimes including spaces or punctuation, included in a postal a ...
number
A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
50100. It is the administrative centre of
Katavi Region
Katavi Region (''Mkoa wa Katavi'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Estonia. Kagera Region is bordered to ...
,
Mpanda District
Mpanda District is one of the five districts of the Katavi Region of Tanzania. Its administrative seat is the city of Mpanda. The district is bordered to the northwest by the Kigoma Region, to the northeast by the Tabora Region, to the east by ...
and is itself one of the four districts of the region.
Mpanda is a "frontier town" in the far west of Tanzania, roughly 500 km north of
Mbeya
Mbeya is a city located in south west Tanzania, Africa. Mbeya's urban population is 620,000 according to the 2022 census. Mbeya is the capital of the surrounding rural Mbeya region (population, with Mbeya, totals approx. 2 million).
Mbeya is sit ...
and 380 km south-west of
Tabora
Tabora is the capital of Tanzania's Tabora Region and is classified as a municipality by the Tanzanian government. It is also the administrative seat of Tabora Urban District. According to the 2012 census, the district had a population of 226,999. ...
. It is the administrative headquarters for the Katavi Region, (created by subdivision of the Rukwa Region in 2012), and for the Mpanda District. It is an important centre in the
rural economy
Rural economics is the study of rural economies. Rural economies include both agricultural and non-agricultural industries, so rural economics has broader concerns than agricultural economics which focus more on food systems. Rural developmen ...
, especially for the marketing and transshipment of rice and maize. The Katavi region is increasingly of interest to mineral prospectors, especially for gold. It is also a staging point for visiting the beautiful Katavi National Park, with its headquarters just 35 km to the south at Sitalike. The Park has a good cross-section of East African wildlife but is perhaps best known for its populations of hippopotamus.
As yet all roads into Mpanda (from
Sumbawanga
Sumbawanga is a city located in western Tanzania. It is the capital of Rukwa Region and the municipal seat of Sumbawanga Urban District with postcode number 55100 . The district had a population of approximately 150,000 based on the 2002 census. Su ...
, Tabora or
Kigoma
Kigoma is a city and lake port in Kigoma-Ujiji District in Tanzania, on the northeastern shores of Lake Tanganyika and close to the border with Burundi and The Democratic Republic of the Congo. It serves as the capital for the surrounding Kigoma R ...
) remain unsealed and may for brief periods become impassable at the height of the wet season (particularly February–March). The Tanzanian government has in progress a project to seal a large part of the road north from Sumbawanga. Sumry operate two daily bus services to Sumbawanga (240 km 5hours), one of those going on to Mbeya. Several bus lines operate to Tabora (380 km, 9 hours). Local services include minibuses to Sitalike, and daily bus services to Usevya and to the fishing villages of
Karema and Ikola on
Lake Tanganyika
Lake Tanganyika () is an African Great Lake. It is the second-oldest freshwater lake in the world, the second-largest by volume, and the second-deepest, in all cases after Lake Baikal in Siberia. It is the world's longest freshwater lake. ...
. Mpanda is the endpoint of a rail line with passenger services from Tabora (approx 12-15hours). In 2012 the government completed an upgrade of
Mpanda airport
Mpanda Airport is an airport in western Tanzania serving the town of Mpanda and the surrounding Katavi Region. It is on the southeastern side of the town. The UN Refugee Agency UNHCR helped the Government of Tanzania to finance the upgrade of t ...
to a 2 km sealed runway and a commercial air service has commenced.
Mpanda was made the centre of a new Catholic Diocese in October 2000 and boasts a very fine cathedral with magnificent pictorial windows. The town is also the centre for the
Anglican Diocese of Lake Rukwa created in June 2010. There is a fine
Moravian church
The Moravian Church ( cs, Moravská církev), or the Moravian Brethren, formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestantism, Protestant Christian denomination, denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohem ...
and other Christian services are provided by Lutheran, African Inland Church and Tanzania Assemblies of God. Moslem people are well served by several mosques spread through the urban area.
Transport
Airport
The city can be reached by flights operated by Air Tanzania
See also
*
Railway stations in Tanzania
ARailway stations in Tanzania include:
*Tanzania Standard Gauge Railway
Maps
UN Map- Tanga and Kidatu lines not shown.
Railways in southern AfricaUNHCR Map* Interactive map of Tanzania railways
* Look for the MSN Map at the bottom of pages o ...
References
{{Authority control
Katavi Region
Katavi Region (''Mkoa wa Katavi'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Estonia. Kagera Region is bordered to ...
Districts of Katavi Region
Constituencies of Tanzania
Regional capitals in Tanzania