The hot water fountain in Rufiji district in Coast region is historic as it was discovered in 1905 by locals living in the area, the Wandengereko tribe.

At the time, Tanzania was under a German colony when the Wandengereko discovered it they sent information to the rulers.

Rufiji District Tourism Officer through Tanzania Forest Agency (TFS), Athuman Baragaza, says colonists entered the area and loved it for tourism purposes.

"In 1914 we entered World War I until 1918 it ended and the Germans were expelled by the British in the colony of Tanganyika. The British and through many places but the area of the spring they loved and admired it the most," says Baragaza.

He says the British made efforts to formalize it into a park in 1930 and by 1945 they built the site with a stone foundation.

By Baragaza's description, the station was initially heavily wooded as the entire area was surrounded by trees until the well was covered as shade lingered on the site.

"The destruction of the environment by cutting down trees caused the area to be a desert where the water was so hot in the past, people cooked their food there, cooked pumpkins, potatoes, boiled maize but then the damage was great and a lot of rubbish was brought in.

"In that area the water dropped from temperatures that had crossed 100 degrees back to 45 degrees," he says.

He says in 2019 the area was handed over under TFS and started to manage and preserve it.

"And since conservation has started to take place in the area, water temperatures have gone back to a high of 98 degrees," says Baragaza.

He says that water has many benefits in the human body both inside and outside the body due to the minerals found in it.

"They contain a mixture of three types of minerals – calcium, chlorine and sulphur. These water baths help to eliminate skin diseases like a person with a broom, a scalp, a sneeze, water helps you.

"Also by using them within the body they help to eliminate muscle tightness so people who exercise these fluids based on the minerals that are present here have helped the muscle tightness," says Baragaza.

He also talks about the cultural use of the area that the water is believed to be helping to remove the sediments from the community that lives there which they have believed from the beginning until today," he says.

As for tourists in the area, he says a large percentage are local people who look at how the environment is being preserved.

TFS District Chief Conservationist Francis Kiondo said that the tree planting day on April 1 this year in the district marked the area of the hot spring.

He says the area is one of the areas where the source of water flows from springs flows into the lake that comes from it.

Kiondo says they are planting trees in the area because before TFS took it and stored it had been destroyed.

He said that at the event TFS planted 1,000 purple fruit seedlings and seedlings that are wood seedlings and other planted trees.

He says TFS in the area is doing conservation in collaboration with the public.

"In this area we are doing water-based tourism, fishing, old buildings so they invite the public to see the conservation," he says.

He says water in the area flows year-round for an hour of 5,000 litres for 24 hours, which is 120,000 litres that does not drop from January to December.

Golani resident Maimuna Ngingo says in the past they bathed in the area but it has now become a reservoir so they are grateful that it has helped preserve the environment in the area.

He admits that the water when they use it eliminates rashes and various skin diseases.

Maulid Tindwa admits that the spring has benefited local people as they use its water for drinking, bathing and treating diseases.

He urges people to protect the environment by stopping cutting down trees in the area.

He is asking the Minister in charge to take care of the centre as it has been forgotten to attract many domestic and foreign tourists.

For his part, CCM Secretary of State Bashir Kibopo says the park was being lost but they are now grateful to TFS for keeping it.

He said the agency provided public education about the area and environmental protection and they agreed to be kept because the conditions were not good as the water had decreased its temperature.

Kibopo says people in the district now hold various wedding and birthday parties in the area.

"If you don't get to the water, you're going to get to Rufus," he says.

Chief conservationist Kiondo says Rufiji is one of nine districts of the Coast Region that is endowed with a wide range of natural resources such as forests, wildlife and fish.

"These resources have made a significant contribution to the economic and social spheres surrounding these resources for the nation as a whole," says Kiondo.

He says the district has 22 conservation forests with an area of 142,647 acres, of which 10 forests of 33,534 acres are national park forests, three 86,264-acre forests belong to the district council and nine forests of 22,647 acres belong to the village government.