City
Dodoma: a 55-year groundwater record, a geological museum and a research vineyard
Water, rock and vines link these three Dodoma places. A near-continuous groundwater record from 1955 to 2010 comes from the Makutapora Wellfield, which supplies the town; the Geological Survey says it set up its headquarters in Dodoma in 1926, and a February 2026 Daily News report places its geological museum there; and at the Makutupora viticulture research centre, which the institute TARI says was founded in 1978, a 2014–15 vine trial reported in 2017 notes that grapes in the Dodoma region are harvested twice a year.
At a glance
- Makutapora Wellfield record
- Taylor and colleagues (2013) observed no groundwater recharge in nearly two-thirds of the 55-year Makutapora Wellfield record, 1955–2010.[1]
- Geological Survey in Dodoma
- Headquarters set up in Dodoma in April 1926, according to the Geological Survey of Tanzania[3]
- Grape harvests
- Twice a year in the Dodoma region, in February–March and August–September (Njovu and colleagues, 2017)[7]
A place worth remembering
Makutapora Wellfield: recharge in very wet seasons
The Makutapora Wellfield supplies water to Dodoma; a policy brief from the GroFutures research project says it has done so since 1954. In Nature Climate Change (2013), Richard Taylor and colleagues analysed groundwater levels there from 1955 to 2010: recharge was not observed during almost two-thirds of that record, and the largest recharge event, 521 mm, followed the 1997–98 rainy season, the heaviest recorded. The paper also reports monthly abstraction rising from 0.1 to 0.9 million m³.[1][2]
Geological Survey of Tanzania: a museum of rocks and minerals
According to its own history page, the survey was established in 1925 as the Geological Survey Department, its first director, Dr E. O. Teale, set up the headquarters in Dodoma in April 1926, and a minerals laboratory followed in 1929. The Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation lists the Australian-born geologist Edmund Oswald Teale as director of the Geological Survey of Tanganyika and as a mining consultant to the Tanganyika government from 1926 to 1940. The history page also mentions a core and rock library and a geological museum, and a Daily News report of 6 February 2026 describes secondary-school students visiting the Geological Museum and laboratories in Dodoma, viewing rock and mineral samples and a map of mineral-rich regions.[3][4][5]
Makutupora: a viticulture research centre and its vine trial
The institute TARI places its Makutupora centre north of the town and says it was founded in 1978 as a centre for grape-growing research and training, within a project funded by a German foundation; it gives the area as 40.2 hectares. The 2012 census lists Makutupora as a ward of the Dodoma Municipal Council. A 2017 study by Njovu and colleagues, carried out at the centre in 2014 and 2015 on ‘Makutupora red’ vines planted in 2002, notes, citing earlier work, that grapes in the Dodoma region are harvested twice a year, in February–March and August–September. In the trial, average daily transpiration was about 4.5 litres per vine in both seasons.[6][7][8]
Good to know
A few clear answers before you explore.
When is the Makutapora Wellfield recharged?
Mainly in unusually wet seasons. Taylor and colleagues found that seven rainy seasons produced 60% of the recharge observed from 1955 to 2010, and the GroFutures brief attributes nearly 20% of all recharge in 1955–2010 to the 1997/98 El Niño event.[1][2]
When did the Geological Survey come to Dodoma?
According to the survey’s history page, its first director, Dr E. O. Teale, set up the headquarters in Dodoma in April 1926, after the survey was established in 1925.[3]
When are grapes harvested in the Dodoma region?
Njovu and colleagues (2017), citing earlier work, note two harvests a year in the region, in February–March and August–September; in their trial at Makutupora the grapes were harvested for analysis on 22 September 2014 and 28 August 2015.[7]
The WorldStamped community
Every visit becomes part of a story.
- Members with public visits
- 0
- Places with public visits or memories
- 0
- Public memories
- 0
No public visits have been counted here yet. Add this destination to your own map and choose what you want to share.
Members are counted once. Counts include only eligible public activity from profiles that allow search discovery. Private and followers-only content is excluded.
.jpg){kind=link}
