TARMAC ROADS ARE 'COOL' IN RURAL ZANZIBAR

The village folk of Tanzania’s idyllic Zanzibar archipelago have hit the road; sleeping on tarmac at night to cool off from the chocking tropical heat in their poorly ventilated houses.

The open-sky experience is completed with a TV set place at the roadside for added comfort, but police have warned against such relaxation.

“We are only looking for a comfortable place to sleep, sometimes the temperature in our houses is so high you cannot sleep,” said Mohamed Omar of Uzini village in the south of Zanzibar’s main isle of Unguja.

“It is dangerous to sleep on roads, but we believe the drivers are sympathetic and drive carefully not to knock us,” he added. Residents say the roads are wide and there is a refreshing breeze.

“People, mainly youths place television sets beside the road and sit or sleep in the middle of the road at night when traffic has decreased,” said Makame Ali, the head of Zanzibar traffic police unit.

“Drivers have been complaining and we have called upon people in the villages to stop turning new roads into resting areas,” Ali said, adding that two accidents recently caused one death and an injury. Zanzibar, a semi-autonomous Tanzanian island, has been improving its roads to boost tourism, a key driver of its economy